Facebook Nation - built on emotions.

Human emotions are wide and varied. However, two of the emotions - one to express and second to probe into others lives stand out. And exactly these two emotions are used successfully by Facebook to built a game changing social network company.

Business is all about selling some goods or services and making money out of it, otherwise there is no free lunch.  Any business model on free lunches cannot survive too long.

So, what exactly Facebook is selling? How it is making money? 

Answer to the first question is emotions. In the name of friendships and even sophisticated word called "networking" - individuals register at Facebook. First they tell about themselves. Their name, age, location, like, dislikes, heroes, zeroes and so on. This is basically about identifying an individual self - voluntarily. Then the individual links with friends, families and then new acquaintances (aka Networking). This stage is all about profiling. As a old saying "one can understand an individual by his friends circle". At this point, pride instills into the individual. I am on the Facebook. I can publish my photos. In the pre-Facebook world, collecting this kind of data was tedious and time consuming. Also, the collection and distribution mechanisms in most of the countries are restricted by data protection acts. In case of Facebook, people world over (to be precise 800m as of now) have willingly identified and profiled themselves on Facebook, consenting Facebook to use their data.

While basic consumer data in itself was seen very valuable, knowing Customer (User) habits are key in this Internet model of business. Otherwise, it is as good as sending marketing emails which are directly pushed into the spam box. Or sending leaflets into the home mailboxes that are sent to bin.

Facebook true success come from allowing people to express their emotions. In turn, curiosity of their network to see and respond makes the engagement more lively. This process of user segmentation by understanding their habits would help to tell (by data mining processes) what that Facebook user likes, does, wants. Each post or comment on Facebook tells what I like (food, gadgets), what I do (profession) and what I want (looking for solar panels, holiday).

Once if I can tell explicitly what I am looking for, Facebook makes sure that such services or goods from the sellers or vendors are displayed. State of these emotions are cashed in - instantly - for example if am looking for a Camera, decision is most likely taken by target adds on Facebook and in turn online reviews or recommendations with in the network. Old business models are now on the way to graveyards.

But here is the key difference. Human memory is weak. We forget the things. But Facebook remembers everything. It remembers my birthday, my friend anniversary or a colleague when he went on holidays and where.  Facebook keep capturing your emotions, your illicit relationships, sarcasm, humor - what not, as long as you are willing to strip naked yourself, sky is the limit.

Is this a win-win proposition? At the outset, for most of the 800m Facebook users, it looks like a win-win proposition. Facebook winning phase shall continue as long as each Facebook user get in for the morning prayers and evening grief. It wants all the users to comeback and tell about their emotions on and on. As long as users emotions do not stop short of probing into others lives, the proposition is good.

I remember #1 Security lesson for Internet users "no one knows if it is dog on Internet!" Facebook success is turning those unknown Internet dogs into well identified, profiled human beings.  In the end stripping out naked on Internet is no different from standing naked in front of your main door.

In the end, can any company that is built on cashing on emotions survived? We have seen nation built by citizens, companies built by workers - but in case of Facebook, Netizens are building the success of Facebook.  But it is not free lunch!