Facebook Was Consistently In 2013’s Headlines, For Better Or Worse

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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) stands by its motto of “Move fast and break things,” but it seems like this year the social networking giant has trimmed its frequency of breaking things, and is moving faster than ever, says a report from Mashable by Kurt Wagner. Facebook has been in the news over the past 12 months for good as well as not so good reasons.

Facebook Was Consistently In 2013's Headlines, For Better Or Worse

Facebook launched various features, popular and unpopular

Every move the company makes becomes news for the whole world and users of Facebook. Facebook regularly changes its product, adding new features to its websites. In 2013, the social networking site launched many good services like Graph Search as well as failed features like Facebook Home.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) Home was highly unpopular amongst users and soon faded away. However, graph search turned out to be the most liked feature from Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB).

News that moved the stock

This year, the stock surged following developments like its inclusion in the Fortune 500 rankings for the first time. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) envisioned providing internet access to the whole world in 2013, a promise that could change the lives of millions and add massively to the user base of Facebook.

The stock suffered a blow after CFO David Ebersman indicated challenges in retaining younger teens on the platform. The stock lost as much as 15% after the news.

NSA surveillance debacle

In the middle of 2013, Facebook was targeted when the news surfaced that the big media companies like Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) are privately allowing the government access to the data of the private users. Facebook denied such charges, but the NSA surveillance program, known as PRISM, was in the news for many weeks after the initial accusations.

After prominent daily newspapers like The Washington Post and The Guardian accused these companies in their original PRISM stories, Facebook revealed by releasing a report that the company receives approximately 1,500 requests for user data per month.

In August, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) released its Transparency report for the first time showing the number of users included in the information requests. Following the move by Facebook, companies like Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) also asked the government to allow them to provide even more details.

Zuckerberg, while giving an interview to The Atlantic in September, said that the report of NSA invasive techniques affected users’ trust in Facebook.

“There’s a lot of times where … someone will criticize us in the press over privacy. What we’ve found is that stuff tends to not actually move the needle that much on the brand perception around trust,” he said. “The NSA stuff did.”

In the year 2014, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is expected to have all-around development, and continue to remain in the news throughout.

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