Facebook Reportedly Launching Business Website, Plans To Compete With LinkedIn
Facebook might just be heading into an aggressive competition against the most popular professional social network, LinkedIn.
If recent reports of Facebook developing a new business website and online platform are true, they might just be able to do just that. The Register reports that the decision to hire London engineers is allegedly related to Facebook’s plans to develop a business platform. Reports claim that “Facebook at Work” will compete directly with LinkedIn as well as Google Drive and even Microsoft Office.
“Facebook at Work” will allow users to finally have a way to keep their personal and professional lives on Facebook completely separate, since their work profiles will be separated from their personal profiles.
The Daily Beast claims that “Facebook at Work” will allow users to communicate with their colleagues, create professional contacts, and even collaborate with each other on shared documents. Development on this business platform reportedly started earlier this year and is currently being tested in multiple companies. Further reports claim that “Facebook at Work” has already been used internally by Facebook staffers.
The story of “Facebook at Work” was first reported by Financial Times.
The social media powerhouse expanded their development operations outside of the San Francisco headquarters and Dublin, Ireland, in 2013 for the very first time when the company decided to hire a team of UK engineers, according to The Register.
A substantial number of people and professionals have stayed away from using Facebook as a business platform, due to the fact that it was initially designed for personal purposes.
Keep in mind that millions of people have transitioned into using Facebook’s existing platform for professional purposes. One study confirms that there are over 30 million Facebook pages for small businesses that are updated each month, according to Expanded Ramblings.
However, LinkedIn has been able to generate a base of over 332 million people within their exclusively professional website — over 100 million users within the United States alone. One study reports that two new LinkedIn members are added to that growing population every second.
If the rumors about “Facebook at Work” are true, this could result in a total game-changer for the world of professional social media platforms in general. Even though LinkedIn has been able to reign as the most popular option in this particular market since the website was first established, a well-developed alternative provided by Facebook could potentially shift the dynamic growth of LinkedIn in the opposite direction.
What do you think?
[Image Credit: CBS Local Philadelphia]
