Each time someone mentions Facebook, I cringe. Last week it was announced that Facebook has reached 300 million subscribers globally and its popularity is increasing exponentially daily. Then you have Twitter, another application that has experienced tremendous growth in a relatively short period of time. I squirm because I don’t see what the hype is about. There is nothing technologically superior about Facebook and Twitter, as far as I can tell. I know that my team of programmers can develop better sites any day. Have you figured out what this madness is about?

You may be able to develop better sites but the fact remains that you have not. It is always easy to proclaim that you have better skills than others — after the fact. Instead of feeling angry or uncomfortable with the success of others, let’s examine the root causes of their successes.
See if you can identify the technology that I am about to describe. The technology experienced massive growth when it was first introduced, led to a worldwide interconnect, provided near-instantaneous communication, resulted in e-commerce, initiated chat rooms, pioneered encryption, commenced standards, reshaped businesses and quite frankly, changed the world. Most of the people I have given this scenario to immediately identify it as the Internet or the World Wide Web.

What I have described, however, is the telegraph which was introduced around 1840. Notice the similarities between the telegraph and the Internet? You could easily be forgiven for mistaking the characteristics and outcomes described above as being those of the Internet, as they are in fact identical to those of the telegraph. The point I am trying to make is that the manifestations of a particular technology may differ but the underlying factors seldom do.

The single most important underlying factor which propelled the telegraph in the 1800s and has driven the Internet in the 1990s, is the need for humans to communicate with each other. Any application or technology that simplifies or expands the communication process is one to watch out for.

We all know today that email played a major role in the success of the Internet. B2B and B2C commerce took off when companies and consumers realised that the Internet made it possible for them to communicate easily, irrespective of time zones and geographical distances.
VoIP or voice over Internet protocol took off expectedly as it demonstrated significant savings in call charges. The need for individuals to communicate is what led to the birth of blogs. Now we have millions of blogs in cyberspace, some of which are never read by others, but the need to communicate and share drives their authors to continue penning their thoughts.
On the mobile front, the rather primitive SMS technology has become the de facto communications platform for both teens and adults alike. Isn’t SMS nothing more than a mobile and briefer version of email?

If there is one thing that separates Homosapiens from other species, it is the need to connect and feel connected. This is exactly what both Facebook and Twitter offer. Life is what happens between blogs entries and Twitter focuses on this unseen and often, unknown zone. People care and want to know when you are having that cup of coffee at Starbucks or rushing to the gym or sitting with a tub of ice cream at home, feeling depressed. Silly as it may sound, people want to know the trivial things that others are doing and they want others to know the mundane things they are doing too. It is such a basic concept, but one that is behind the astounding growth of Twitter as it fills a gap in people’s lives — in 140 words or less.

World-changing products
Communication is also what has pushed the envelope of Facebook. People want to know who you know. In studies done on Facebook usage, it was found that more than 90% of Facebook users check out the people their friends know. Most then go on to make connections with these total strangers, who are friends of their friends. Weird, but the end result proves that the concept works. It is also the same with LinkedIn, a site that allows you to communicate with others on a professional basis. In the US, it has become the preferred site for identifying and locating potential employees. LinkedIn shows you how you may be linked to a completely unfamiliar person through someone you know. The ability to communicate these things is what powers the growth of social and professional networking sites.

So, what you need to do is to rethink how you utilise your clever team of programmers. Having technical skills alone is not even half the story — they will not dream up Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn on their own accord. World-changing products come from a deep understanding of the rational needs and emotional wants of the human race.

If your product fulfils rational needs, you can be certain that price will play a large part in the decision-making process. If you meet emotional wants, price is less of a factor; your ability to deliver a “feel good” experience is more important. Technical teams have to be guided, mentored and coached to deliver real-world solutions, otherwise they tend to stick to the realms of familiarity. The CEO must drive the product design of any company, from a functionality point of view. He or she has to determine what the product should do for the customer, leaving the “how” to the technical wizards.

The product must revolve around the customer experience, not the other way around. First movers have a definite advantage, as users will not switch social networks when their connections and links are all set up. So don’t begrudge Facebook or Twitter as they have got their fundamentals right. Have you?

Datuk Dr Kamal Jit Singh is executive editor of Global Innovation Resource Centre, a think tank set up to spearhead innovation in industry, government and academia. He is also a director of Multimedia Development Corp.
This article appeared in netv@lue2.0, the technology section of The Edge Malaysia, Issue 774 Sept 28 - Oct 4 2009