Facebook is developing enterprise platform FB@Work

Work Facebook" the term usually refers to people all day long addicted to Facebook, and abandoned his work . However, according to anonymous sources inside Facebook, Facebook is investigating a way to make it work-friendly. The company is developing a version of Facebook for the work environment.

“By developing a Facebook version that is suitable for the workplace, we are trying to make the work more interesting and effective.” The source said, “We will cover the entire architecture and all platforms (including web, iOS and Android, etc.).” He will One project is called “ FB@Work ” and revealed that the project is currently underway in London.

It is unclear whether the FB@Work under development is an internal communication platform for users, or it provides users with a new way to interact with millions of users who have used Facebook at work to help Facebook develop new business. The latter is similar to LinkedIn.

A Facebook spokesperson said that the company would not comment on rumors or speculation, and "there is no new news to announce at the moment."

Currently, in some less formal situations, users already use Facebook for internal corporate communications.

“All of Facebook uses Facebook at work,” says a former Facebook employee. “Most of their communications and plans are done through the Messages and Groups apps. So for other users, use Facebook in the office. It’s also natural to get the job done. It’s a quick and effective way to get the job done.”

As far as I know, on Facebook, all teams have their own groups. When they join the company, leave the company, or adjust positions, they join or leave the relevant group. Facebook has added authentication security features and synchronized with the company's human resources database.

Here is the answer to a question from Quora 2012. This answer describes what tools Facebook employees use to communicate, how Facebook uses Groups, email and chat, and how Facebook develops a set of tools to work with external platforms. Facebook's tools include Pixelcloud for sharing and commenting on images, and internal task management tools similar to Asana. Recently, Facebook also started using Quip . This is a mobile-first word processing platform created by former Chief Technology Officer of Facebook, Bret Taylor.

Obviously, this answer on Quora comes from a Facebook engineer based in London. The rumored FB@Works is also being developed in London. The head of the Facebook London engineering team is Lars Rasmussen. He is one of two people who were responsible for social graph search development and moved from Facebook headquarters to London in 2013 .

Before joining Facebook, Rasmussen developed Google Wave. This is a promising collaboration tool, but it was eventually shut down by Google because it failed to attract enough users.

In addition, some outside companies are currently using Facebook at work.

Clara Shih, CEO of Hearsay Social, said: “Facebook's Groups and Group Messaging capabilities have changed the way we communicate and collaborate at Hearsay Social. As a social media software company, we know that all employees are using it. Facebook. Instead of developing another tool and asking employees to sign up, we decided to create a private Facebook group to support live chat and conversation within the company."

At the same time, two sources said that in the past three to four years, Facebook has been discussing the launch of a product for the enterprise.

However, the multiple launches and cessations of these projects also indicate that there are many opportunities and challenges in this area.

“I often hear related rumors. Facebook has two projects, launched several times, close to release, but was cancelled at the last minute. And this is one of them.” Another Facebook former employee said.

So what is another project? It's also a project that can dramatically expand the reach of Facebook users, the Facebook version for children under the age of 13. The source said: "These two projects have been launched more than three times, but they have also been cancelled three times."

Regarding the children's version of Facebook, there is a lot of resistance to privacy protection. In the enterprise market, the situation is completely different. “Facebook employees have found it useful to use Facebook communications at work, but it’s not clear whether this will meet a wider range of needs,” the source said.

At the same time, the introduction of a new service raises the question of how the service will be incorporated into Facebook's broader business.

In addition to advertising, Facebook is opening up new sources of revenue, such as virtual currency, e-commerce and transfer of funds and so on.

So the question now is whether Facebook can monetize software services, or just provide a useful but free tool. If it's the latter, the value of this tool is to drive user interaction and make users spend more time on their social networks. Such tools will ultimately enhance the value of Facebook and drive the growth of other businesses, such as advertising sales.

“It’s hard for me to imagine that this would be a good revenue opportunity for Facebook,” a source said. “They may charge, but they will eventually decide not to.

On the other hand, another person said that Facebook has a wide range of plans for corporate products, and such products will compete with LinkedIn.

"This has been in Facebook's work list for 3 years, but the priority is not high," the source said. However, it is clear that Facebook intends to insist on developing such services.

“Facebook is considered a community for friends, and LinkedIn is more transactional.” Sources pointed out that “Facebook needs to ensure that it does not lose community appeal.”

Facebook has taken some steps to find ways to connect to customer relationship management (CRM) databases and social networks, but this seems to be primarily for advertising, similar to the Custom Audience advertising service released at the 2012 Salesforce Dreamforce conference .

Regardless of any doubts, it is clear that Facebook has the opportunity to promote the success of FB@Work . Facebook currently has more than 1 billion users.

“The trend of 'IT consumerization' and the ambiguity of personal network identity and professional network identity boundaries have given Facebook the opportunity to play a role in the enterprise services market,” said Clara Shih. He previously worked for Salesforce, which used Facebook to develop a sales contact application, Faceconnector.

“Obviously, the news at the recent f8 conference that “quick action based on stable infrastructure” deviates from the way that was previously hostile to the corporate market, namely “quick action, breaking the rules.”