Why Facebook’s Future is Messaging

After a lot of controversies (read: blunders), Mark Zuckerberg is ready with a new strategy for Facebook. Is he learning from his past experiences? Or is it another failed attempt to hide his own incompetencies? I guess we’ll know that with time. To understand the issue, you can read our previous feature, ‘Should Facebook unfriend Mark Zuckerberg?’

We know after all those controversies about Facebook like misusing its users’ data has resulted in a significant decline in Facebook’s usage. We can see a strong shift of use in teens and youth. They prefer another platform, Instagram, which itself is owned by Mark. According to Zephoria, worldwide there are 2.32 monthly active users (MAU) as of December 31, 2018. The largest demographic, 29.7%, is of ages 25–34.

Mr Zuckerberg is ready with a new vision of Facebook which will make it more private and secure. He believes, “The future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure”. This statement raised a lot of questions. Will the communication be encrypted like WhatsApp? or the whole platform is getting encrypted?

It basically hinted towards a change in Facebook’s business model and strategies. According to him, the world needs two types of social networks. One which is open and accessible to all like Instagram and Facebook. Other, which is closed and respects privacy like Messenger and Whatsapp. Although he believes that Facebook and Instagram are growing and will continue to grow with its importance. The future, however, will be messaging.

Zuckerberg’s plans are to make the messaging experience seamless by connecting Facebook Messenger, Instagram’s DM and WhatsApp. This means that if you get a text you can access it from any one of these platforms. Also, businesses’ reach on messaging apps is about to explode. The ability of marketers to reach via a single messaging app will be a boon for them.

The core of the issue is social networks itself. They are a platform which helps people to portray an image of them which might not be true. And with a powerful medium, they can spread their strong opinions. Sometimes these opinions are intellectual but mostly they are out of hatred. This results in the spreading of hate speech. These outrage trends get more engagement and, hence, become more trending due to Facebook’s algorithm.

It is a fact that every company perishes at some point or another. The main goal is to delay that timeframe while remaining profitable. Otherwise, Facebook will meet the same fate as Orkut, Hi5, Myspace and others that came before it. It could be due to various reasons like people getting bored with the platform, finding or seeking a better alternative, or the plain curiosity of trying new platforms.

Zuckerberg, however, took care of that by providing an alternative to Facebook and Messenger by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp as he understands the fact that this shift is natural. Facebook, however, will invest more money on security and services which might turn it to a better platform. Instagram is the next growth area where focus and energy have shifted. It is this reducing independence from Facebook that resulted in the Instagram founders eventually leaving the company last year. That was a price Facebook was willing to pay as it has seen the writing on the wall for its flagship app.

Regaining the trust of the merchants and users is also a big task after all the controversies of the past couple of years. Facebook will eventually build a privacy-focused messaging platform which will power the messaging services across its various apps. It provides advanced possibilities of interconnectivity amongst users who are not necessarily using all three services. This will eventually lead to better user profiling and enabling better monetisation through both advertising and commerce.

However Facebook decides to monetise the platform after the pivot and regain user trust, one thing is certain — Zuckerberg and the company leadership has realised the importance of making Facebook a utility. This is the best way to ensure the longevity of the company. The utility that the company has decided to double down on is one which it already has multiple products in. Personalised messaging is certainly timeless. And it is the vehicle Facebook has bet its future on.