Facebook’s Mission And Vision Statement Analysis 2023

Facebook is the social media platform where over 2.7 billion users (2020) gather to share their stories, photos and videos every month.

Facebook is the most popular social networking service from the namesake company Facebook Inc., one of the world’s most valuable technology conglomerate. Facebook Inc.’s consistent place at the top is a result of their timely acquisition of the contemporary promising technologies and applications; most notably, Instagram, WhatsApp and data analytics software Onavo.

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Facebook Values:

Focus On Impact
Move Fast
Be Bold
Be Open
Build Social Value

Facebook’s values are reflected in their actions. The most relevant example would be when Facebook decided to change their mission statement in 2017.

Facebook’s Mission Statement

Facebook’s Mission Statement until 2017 was-

“Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”

Facebook’s original mission statement focused on the ability Facebook gives to its users. Using the word “People” to refer to their users hinted that Facebook is a universal service and people belonging to all classes, races and genders are welcome to the platform.

Making the world more connected and open through the power of sharing:

Facebook’s mission is to give people the ability to share their stories and opinions. Facebook is a useful social networking service to share stories, photos, videos and other contents with one another and with the world and through this process, people will make connections with like-minded people. This creates an open space for people to share their stories.

However, this mission statement fails to express the ultimate outcome of the connections made. It gives us no direction as to how the connections will be used, how the world will be impacted. As Facebook’s initial goal of connecting people was achieved mostly, they set their mission to utilize the connections to create positive impact in the world, to unite people, to build communities and bring the world closer together.

In 2017, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the company, replaced Facebook’s mission statement with the following:

“Give People the Power to Build Community and Bring the World Closer Together”
Facebook current mission statement

Facebook’s mission is to give people the ability to create communities through Facebook. Facebook wants its platform to be used more responsibly. Using the platform responsibly and by utilizing this media to gain support for positive causes. Facebook’s concern for the issue arose as the platform was being used to spread misinformation to polarize communities. During the US Presidential election of 2016, candidates used Facebook to cater to people’s biases and misconceptions to gain political advantage. In the wake of these issues, Mark Zuckerberg spoke about the shortcomings and lack of purpose in their old mission statement and changed their mission.

In their present mission statement, they highlight the following goals:

Build Community:

Facebook essentially is a platform where people get to share their stories and emotions via words, photos, artworks and other media to connect with friends, families and the world. Sharing is caring. And the care, be it for delightful interactions or for pressing issues, is a precursor to building communities. In their current mission statement, Facebook ties their service with the ultimate goal of using their platform to beget positive change in the world thorough building communities that lift people up. Facebook wants to be a platform that unites people to build communities.

Bring the World Closer Together:

The second component of Facebook’s mission is to bring the world closer together. Facebook was being used to draw division among people, to spread hatred and bigotry. Facebook acknowledged their greater responsibility to preventing their platform from being a weapon to spread hatred. In their mission statement, Facebook added the phrase “Bringing the world closer together” to share their goal of uniting people and to diminish geographical, classist boundaries among people.

Facebook’s Vision Statement

Facebook’s Vision Statement is:

“People use Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the world, and to share and express what matters to them.“

Facebook’s vision statement contains the purposes of Facebook. The mission statement and vision statement both delineate the same sentiments in terms of Facebook’s universality. Both the statements use people to refer to Facebook users.

The vision statement mentions the following uses of Facebook:

Create and Maintain Connections
Share and Express What Matters to them
Discover Contemporary Issues

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References:

https://www.comparably.com/companies/facebook/mission

https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20most%20popular,2.7%20billion%20monthly%20active%20users.

Hall, M. (2021, February 4). Facebook. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Facebook

https://www.reuters.com/companies/FB.O

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