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Chapter 1 Introduction to e-business and e-commerce 17

Podcasts Let’s now look at each part of this description in more detail. The first part of the descrip-
Individuals and tion illustrates the range of access platforms and communications tools that form the online
organizations post online
media (audio and video) channels which e-marketers use to build and develop relationships with customers including
which can be viewed in PCs, PDAs, mobile phones, interactive digital TV and radio.
the appropriate players
(including the iPod which Different access platforms deliver content and enable interaction through a range of differ-
first sparked the growth ent online communication tools or media channels. Some are well-established techniques
in this technique). The which will be familiar to you, like web sites, search engines, e-mail and text messaging. One of
latest podcast updates
can be automatically the most exciting things about working in digital media is the introduction of new tools and
delivered by really simple techniques which have to be assessed for their relevance to a particular marketing campaign.
syndication.
For example, recent innovations which we discuss further in Chapters 8 and 9 include
Social network blogs, feeds, podcasts and social networks. The growth of social networks has been docu-
A site that facilitates peer- mented by Boyd and Ellison (2007) who describe social networking sites (SNS) as:
to-peer communication
within a group or Web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile
between individuals
through providing within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a
facilities to develop user- connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others
generated content (UGC)
and to exchange within the system.
messages and comments
between different users. The interactive capabilities to post comments or other content and rate content are surpris-
ingly missing from this definition.

Case Study 1.1 A short history of Facebook

Context Zuckerberg used open source-software PHP and the
MySQL database to create the original ‘TheFacebook.
This case is about a social network, Facebook. According
com’ site and these technologies are still in use today.
to its owners,
When Facebook first launched in February 2004,
Facebook is a social utility that helps people com- there were just three things that users could do on the
municate more efficiently with their friends, family and site, although they are still core to the functionality of the
coworkers. The company develops technologies that site. Users could create a profile with your picture and
facilitate the sharing of information through the social information, view other people’s profiles, and add
graph, the digital mapping of people’s real-world people as friends.
social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook Since 2004, Facebook has introduced other function-
and interact with the people they know in a trusted ality to create the Facebook experience. Some of the

environment. most significant of these include:
The case illustrates some of the challenges for an owner A wall for posting messages
of a social network managing growth and decline in News feeds
usage. It also highlights the challenges for partners and Messages
advertisers considering working with a social network. Posting of multiple photos and videos
The case is presented through key events during the Groups
development of Facebook Applications
Facebook or social ads.
Facebook launched and extended –
4 February 2004 Intellectual property dispute – September
2004 ongoing
Facebook was founded while Mark Zuckerberg was a
student at Harvard University. Initially membership was There has been an ongoing dispute on ownership of
limited to Harvard students. The initial viral effect of the Facebook since another Harvard-originated social
software was indicated since more than half of the under- networking site ‘HarvardConnection’, which later
graduate population at Harvard registered on the service changed its name to ConnectU, alleged in September
within the first month! 2004 that Zuckerberg had used their source code to