THE GROWTH OF FACEBOOK by Clara Shih

How did Facebook grow from a dorm room project to overtake MySpace and now dominate the social networking space by an order of magnitude? Two reasons: user trust and engagement. First, Facebook’s founders realized early on that people would log in only if the social networking site contained valuable information, and people would share valuable information only in an environment they trusted. During the last several years, the site introduced a number of features that have helped create a trusted environment on Facebook.

• Email domain authentication. . .

• Restricted Access—Knowing that they can restrict others’ access to all or certain parts of their profile gives Facebook users the confidence to share more about themselves.

• Exclusiveness—Initially, Facebook was available at Harvard only. Then it spread to other Ivy League schools. Its gradual expansion to other colleges and eventually to the public created a certain cachet of exclusiveness that made it seem more trusted and desirable.