MOST INNOVATIVE
COMPANIES 2017
6. Facebook
Facebook is an American social network and
technology company founded in 2004 by Harvard classmates Mark Zuckerberg, Chris Hughes,
Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Andrew McCollum. The platform originally
allowed users to create profiles and post updates to friends when it launched
on college campuses. It quickly became known for colloquialisms like
"Friending" and its famous like button, and added messaging and photo
and video sharing capabilities. But in the past 13 years, Facebook has grown
into a robust advertising platform, is spearheading initiatives to provide
internet access in developing countries, and is even venturing into artificial
intelligence and virtual reality.
Led by CEO Zuckerberg, Facebook has ballooned
to include more than 1 billion daily active users—most of whom access the
platform via its mobile app. Meanwhile, Facebook's Messenger app (which the company
split off from the main Facebook app) has blossomed into a billion-user
platform of its own. High-profile acquisitions like 2012's purchase of
Instagram (which has boomed to 600 million users under Facebook ownership) and
2014's purchases of WhatsApp and Oculus VR have only broadened Facebook's reach
and influence as a social platform and technology heavy hitter. Next up is
virtual reality. Oculus Rift, the groundbreaking VR headset that began shipping
to customers in 2016, gives Facebook a shot at being the defining player in the
next era of computer interfaces.
As Facebook pursues its virtual reality
objectives, the big question is how it can blend VR with its mission statement
to connect the world and make it easy for people to share what’s important to
them with their friends and family. Facebook’s Social VR initiative is meant to
extend the Facebook experience into virtual reality. The company’s 17,000
employees haven’t built a $380 billion operation by shying away from such
seemingly tall orders, and what they’ve shown already has earned a lot of buzz.
Facebook has already made it possible for people to video chat in virtual
reality via Messenger. It has also released the reference design for the
Surround 360, an open-source, high-end 360-degree camera system that anyone can
build or modify for their own purposes. Now Facebook has to find a way to fend
off competition from startups like AltspaceVR and High Fidelity, among others,
which are also looking to develop an essential social VR platform.
With the launch of Facebook Live in 2015,
Facebook pushed into the live-video arena, later creating a dedicated section
on its mobile app in hopes of getting users to broadcast right from their
phones. Facebook Live’s watershed moment came in the summer of 2016, when the
girlfriend of Philando Castile streamed his final moments after he was shot by
a police officer during a traffic stop. The shocking video sparked national
outrage and showed how new broadcasting tools offer an unprecedented
opportunity reveal underreported acts of violence and circumvent typical
gatekeepers.
Top
tip for getting a job at this company:
Be prepared to write code on a whiteboard during your
interview.
Top
perks for employees:
Excellent parental leave policy
Endless options for free food
On-site haircuts, oil changes, etc.
Rooftop park atop new Frank Gehry building in Menlo Park, CA
Endless options for free food
On-site haircuts, oil changes, etc.
Rooftop park atop new Frank Gehry building in Menlo Park, CA
DATA
COMPETITION
Snap, Tencent, Google, Microsoft, Line, Twitter
PEOPLE
Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Mike Schroepfer
VALUATION
$380 billion
PUBLIC OR PRIVATE
Public
STAFF
17,000
USERS
1.86 billion monthly active users
HEADQUARTERS
Menlo Park, California
(WWW.fastcompany.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment