facebook inc case study

11 Facebook Case Studies & Success Stories to Inspire You

Published: August 05, 2019

Although Facebook is one of the older social media networks, it's still a thriving platform for businesses who want to boost brand awareness.

With over 2.38 billion monthly active users , you can use the platform to spread the word about your business in a number of different ways -- from photos or videos to paid advertisements.

Because there are so many marketing options and opportunities on Facebook, It can be hard to tell which strategy is actually best for your brand.

If you're not sure where to start, you can read case studies to learn about strategies that marketing pros and similar businesses have tried in the past.

A case study will often go over a brand's marketing challenge, goals, a campaign's key details, and its results. This gives you a real-life glimpse at what led a marketing team to reach success on Facebook. Case studies also can help you avoid or navigate common challenges that other companies faced when implementing a new Facebook strategy.

To help you in choosing your next Facebook strategy, we've compiled a list of 11 great case studies that show how a number of different companies have succeeded on the platform.

Even if your company has a lower budget or sells a different product, we hope these case studies will inspire you and give you creative ideas for your own scalable Facebook strategy.

Facebook Brand Awareness Case Studies:

During the 2017 holiday season, the jewelry company Pandora wanted to boost brand awareness in the German market. They also wanted to see if video ads could have the same success as their other Facebook ad formats.

They began this experiment by working with Facebook to adapt a successful TV commercial for the platform. Here's a look at the original commercial:

The ad was cut down to a 15-second clip which shows a woman receiving a Pandora necklace from her partner. It was also cropped into a square size for mobile users. Pandora then ran the ad targeting German audiences between the ages of 18-50. It appeared in newsfeeds and as an in-stream video ad .

Results: According to the case study , the video campaign lifted brand sentiment during the holiday season, with a 10-point lift in favorability. While Pandora or the case study didn't disclose how they measured their favorability score, they note that the lift means that more consumers favored Pandora over other jewelers because of the ad.

Financially, the campaign also provided ROI with a 61% lift in purchases and a 42% increase in new buyers.

Video can be memorable, emotional, and persuasive. While the case study notes that Pandora always had success with ads and purchases, the jeweler saw that a video format could boost brand awareness even further.

In just 15 seconds, Pandora was able to tell a short story that their target audience could identify with while also showing off their product. The increase in favorability shows that audiences who saw the ad connected with it and preferred the jeweler over other companies because of the marketing technique.

Part of Pandora's success might also be due to the video's platform adaptation. Although they didn't create a specific video for the Facebook platform, they picked a commercial that had already resonated with TV audiences and tweaked it to grab attention of fast-paced Facebook users. This is a good example of how a company can be resourceful with the content it already has while still catering to their online audiences.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame , a HubSpot customer, wanted to boost brand awareness and get more ticket purchases to their museum. Since they'd mainly used traditional customer outreach strategies in the past, they wanted to experiment with more ways of reaching audiences on social media.

Because the museum's social media team recognized how often they personally used Facebook Messenger, they decided to implement a messaging strategy on the Hall of Fame's official business page.

From the business page, users can click the Get Started button and open a chat with the Hall of Fame. Through the chat, social media managers were able to quickly reply to questions or comments from fans, followers, and prospective visitors. The reps would also send helpful links detailing venue pricing, events, other promotions, and activities in the surrounding area.

Since the Messenger launch, they claim to have raised their audience size by 81% and sales from prospects by 12%. The company claims that this feature was so successful that they even received 54 messages on an Easter Sunday.

Being available to connect with your audiences through Messenger can be beneficial to your business and your brand. While the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame boosted purchases, they also got to interact with their audiences on a personal level. Their availability might have made them look like a more trustworthy, friendly brand that was actually interested in their fanbase rather than just sales.

Facebook Reach Case Study:

In early 2016, Buffer started to see a decline in their brand reach and engagement on Facebook due to algorithm changes that favored individuals rather than brands. In an effort to prevent their engagement and reach numbers from dropping even further.

The brand decided to cut their posting frequency by 50%. With less time focused on many posts, they could focus more time on creating fewer, better-quality posts that purely aimed at gaining engagement. For example, instead of posting standard links and quick captions, they began to experiment with different formats such as posts with multi-paragraph captions and videos. After starting the strategy in 2016, they continued it through 2018.

Here's an example of one an interview that was produced and shared exclusively on Facebook.

The Results: By 2018, Buffer claimed that the average weekly reach nearly tripled from 44,000 at the beginning of the experiment to 120,000. The page's average daily engagements also doubled from roughly 500 per day to around 1,000.

In 2018, Buffer claimed that their posts reached between 5,000 to 20,000 people, while posts from before the experiment reached less than 2,000.

Although Buffer began the experiment before major Facebook algorithm changes , they updated this case study in 2018 claiming that this strategy has endured platform shifts and is still providing them with high reach and engagement.

It can be easy to overpost on a social network and just hope it works. But constant posts that get no reach or engagement could be wasted your time and money. They might even make your page look desperate.

What Buffer found was that less is more. Rather than spending your time posting whatever you can, you should take time to brainstorm and schedule out interesting posts that speak directly to your customer.

Facebook Video Views Case Studies:

Gearing up for Halloween in 2016, Tomcat, a rodent extermination company, wanted to experiment with a puppet-filled, horror-themed, live video event. The narrative, which was created in part by their marketing agency, told the story of a few oblivious teenage mice that were vacationing in a haunted cabin in the woods. At peak points of the story, audiences were asked to use the comments to choose which mouse puppet would die next or how they would die.

Prior to the video event, Tomcat also rolled out movie posters with the event date, an image of the scared mouse puppets, and a headline saying, "Spoiler: They all die!"

Results: It turns out that a lot of people enjoy killing rodents. The live video got over 2.3 million unique views , and 21% of them actively participated. As an added bonus, the video also boosted Tomcat's Facebook fanbase by 58% and earned them a Cyber Lion at the 2017 Cannes Lions awards.

Here's a hilarious sizzle reel that shows a few clips from the video and a few key stats:

This example shows how creative content marketing can help even the most logistical businesses gain engagement. While pest control can be a dry topic for a video, the brand highlighted it in a creative and funny way.

This study also highlights how interactivity can provide huge bonuses when it comes to views and engagement. Even though many of the viewers knew all the rats would die, many still participated just because it was fun.

Not only might this peak brand interest from people who hadn't thought that deeply about pest control, but interactivity can also help a video algorithmically. As more people comment, share, and react to a live video, there's more likelihood that it will get prioritized and displayed in the feeds of others.

In 2017, HubSpot's social media team embarked on an experiment where they pivoted their video goals from lead generation to audience engagement. Prior to this shift, HubSpot had regularly posted Facebook videos that were created to generate leads. As part of the new strategy, the team brainstormed a list of headlines and topics that they thought their social media audience would actually like, rather than just topics that would generate sales.

Along with this pivot, they also experimented with other video elements including video design, formatting, and size .

Results: After they started to launch the audience-friendly videos, they saw monthly video views jump from 50,000 to 1 million in mid-2017.

Creating content that caters to your fanbase's interests and the social platform it's posted on can be much more effective than content that seeks out leads.

While videos with the pure goal of selling a product can fall flat with views and engagement, creative videos that intrigue and inform your audiences about a topic they relate to can be a much more effective way to gain and keep your audience. Once the audience trusts you and consumes your content regularly, they might even trust and gain interest in your products.

Facebook App Installs Case Study:

Foxnext games.

FoxNext Games, a video game company owned by 20th Century Fox, wanted to improve the level of app installs for one of its newest releases, Marvel Strike Force. While FoxNext had previously advertised other games with Facebook video ads, they wanted to test out the swipe-able photo carousel post format. Each photo, designed like a playing card, highlighted a different element of the game.

The add offered a call-to-action button that said "Install Now" and lead to the app store where it could be downloaded. FoxNext launched it on both Facebook and Instagram. To see if the carousel was more efficient than video campaigns, they compared two ads that advertised the same game with each format.

Results: According to Facebook , the photo ads delivered a 6% higher return on ad spend, 14% more revenue, 61% more installs, and 33% lower cost per app install.

Takeaways If your product is visual, a carousel can be a great way to show off different elements of it. This case study also shows how designing ads around your audience's interest can help each post stand out to them. In this scenario, FoxNext needed to advertise a game about superheroes. They knew that their fanbase was interested in gaming, adventure, and comic books, so they created carousels that felt more like playing cards to expand on the game's visual narrative.

Facebook Lead Gen Case Study:

Major impact media.

In 2019, Major Impact Media released a case study about a real-estate client that wanted to generate more leads. Prior to working with Major Impact, the Minneapolis, Minnesota brokerage hired another firm to build out an online lead generation funnel that had garnered them no leads in the two months it was active. They turned to Major Impact looking for a process where they could regularly be generating online leads.

As part of the lead generation process, the marketing and brokerage firms made a series of Facebook ads with the lead generation objective set. Major Impact also helped the company build a CRM that could capture these leads as they came in.

Results: Within a day, they received eight leads for $2.45 each. In the next 90 days, the marketing firm claimed the ads generated over 370 local leads at the average cost of $6.77 each. Each lead gave the company their name, email, and phone number.

Although these results sound like a promising improvement, readers of this case study should keep in mind that no number of qualified leads or ROI was disclosed. While the study states that leads were gained, it's unclear which of them lead to actual sales -- if any.

This shows how Facebook ad targeting can be helpful when you're seeking out leads from a specific audience in a local area. The Minneapolis brokerage's original marketing and social media strategies weren't succeeding because they were looking for a very specific audience of prospective buyers in the immediate area.

Ad targeting allowed their posts to be placed on the news feeds of people in the area who might be searching for real estate or have interests related to buying a home. This, in turn, might have caused them more success in gaining leads.

Facebook Engagement Case Study:

When the eyewear brand Hawkers partnered up with Spanish clothing brand El Ganso for a joint line of sunglasses, Hawkers' marketing team wanted to see which Facebook ad format would garner the most engagement. Between March and April of 2017, they launched a combination of standard ads and collection ads on Facebook.

While their standard ads had a photo, a caption and a call-to-action linking to their site, the collection ads offered a header image or video, followed by smaller images of sunglasses from the line underneath.

Image from Digital Training Academy

To A/B test ad effectiveness of the different ad types, Hawkers showed half of its audience standard photo ads while the other half were presented with the collection format. The company also used Facebook's Audience Lookalike feature to target the ads their audiences and similar users in Spain.

Results: The collection ad boosted engagement by 86% . The collection ads also saw a 51% higher rate of return than the other ads.

This study shows how an ad that shows off different elements of your product or service could be more engaging to your audience. With collection ads, audiences can see a bunch of products as well as a main image or video about the sunglass line. With a standard single photo or video, the number of products you show might be limited. While some users might not respond well to one image or video, they might engage if they see a number of different products or styles they like.

Facebook Conversion Case Study:

Femibion from merck.

Femibion, a German family-planning brand owned by Merck Consumer Health, wanted to generate leads by offering audiences a free baby planning book called "Femibion BabyPlanung." The company worked with Facebook to launch a multistage campaign with a combination of traditional image and link ads with carousel ads.

The campaign began with a cheeky series of carousel ads that featured tasteful pictures of "baby-making places," or locations where women might conceive a child. The later ads were a more standard format that displayed an image of the book and a call-to-action.

When the first ads launched in December 2016, they were targeted to female audiences in Germany. In 2017, during the later stages of the campaign, the standard ads were retargeted to women who had previously interacted with the carousel ads. With this strategy, people who already showed interest would see more ads for the free product offer. This could cause them to remember the offer or click when they saw it a second time.

Results: By the time the promotion ended in April 2017, ads saw a 35% increase in conversion rate. The company had also generated 10,000 leads and decreased their sample distribution cost by two times.

This case study shows how a company successfully brought leads through the funnel. By targeting women in Germany for their first series of creative "baby-making" ads, they gained attention from a broad audience. Then, by focusing their next round of ads on women who'd already shown some type of interest in their product, they reminded those audiences of the offer which may have enabled those people to convert to leads.

Facebook Product Sales Case Study

In an effort to boost sales from its Latin American audiences, Samsung promoted the 2015 Argentina launch of the Galaxy S6 smartphone with a one-month Facebook campaign.

The campaign featured three videos that highlighted the phone's design, camera, and long battery life respectively.

One video was released each week and all of them were targeted to men and women in Argentina. In the fourth week of the campaign, Samsung launched more traditional video and photo ads about the product. These ads were specifically targeted to people who'd engaged with the videos and their lookalike audiences.

Results: Samsung received 500% ROI from the month-long campaign and a 7% increase in new customers.

Like Femibion, Samsung tested a multiple ad strategy where the targeting got more specific as the promotions continued. They too saw the benefit of targeting ads to users who already showed interest in the first rounds of advertisements. This strategy definitely seems like one that could be effective when trying to gain more qualified leads.

Facebook Store Visits Case Study:

Church's chicken.

The world's third-largest chicken restaurant, Church's Chicken, wanted to see if they could use Facebook to increase in-restaurant traffic. From February to October of 2017, the chain ran a series of ads with the "Store Traffic" ad objectives. Rather than giving customers a link to a purchasing or order page, these ads offer users a call-to-action that says "Get Directions." The dynamic store-traffic ad also gives users the store information for the restaurant closest to them.

Image from Facebook

The ads ran on desktop and mobile newsfeeds and were targeted at people living near a Church's Chicken who were also interested in "quick-serve restaurants." The study also noted that third-party data was used to target customers who were "big spenders" at these types of restaurants.

To measure the results, the team compared data from Facebook's store-reporting feature with data from all of its locations.

Results: The ads resulted in over 592,000 store visits with an 800% ROI. Each visit cost the company an average of $1.14. The ROI of the campaign was four times the team's return goal.

If you don't have an ecommerce business, Facebook ads can still be helpful for you if they're strategized properly. In this example, Church's ads targeted locals who like quick-serve restaurants and served them a dynamic ad with text that notified them of a restaurant in their direct area. This type of targeting and ad strategy could be helpful to small businesses or hyperlocal businesses that want to gain foot traffic or awareness from the prospective customers closest to them.

Navigating Case Studies

If you're a marketer that wants to execute proven Facebook strategies, case studies will be incredibly helpful for you. If the case studies on the list above didn't answer one of your burning Facebook questions, there are plenty of other resources and success stories online.

As you look for a great case study to model your next campaign strategy, look for stories that seem credible and don't feel too vague. The best case studies will clearly go over a company's mission, challenge or mission, process, and results.

Because many of the case studies you'll find are from big businesses, you might also want to look at strategies that you can implement on a smaller scale. For example, while you may not be able to create a full commercial at the production quality of Pandora, you might still be able to make a lower-budget video that still conveys a strong message to your audience.

If you're interested in starting a paid campaign, check out this helpful how-to post . If you just want to take advantage of free options, we also have some great information on Facebook Live and Facebook for Business .

Don't forget to share this post!

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Facebook, Inc.: The Initial Public Offering – Case Solution

In mid-May 2012, the pricing of Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering (IPO) was undertaken. A CXTechnology Fund analyst looked forward to speaking with the lead underwriter about his interest after a review of Facebook Inc's phenomenal growth as well as its potential for profit as a business and in the competitive environment of social networking. The analyst had to come up with the decision whether to subscribe to shares in the IPO or not, considering that the IPO appeared to be oversubscribed with heavy interest, and the valuation seemed to be much more.

​Deborah Compeau; Craig Dunbar; Michael R King; Ken Mark Harvard Business Review ( W12453-PDF-ENG ) January 25, 2013

Case questions answered:

Case study questions answered in the first solution:

• Why is Facebook going public? How much money would the company raise from the IPO? What is the planned use of proceeds from the offering?
• Exhibit 11 provides an estimate for Facebook’s share value using DCF. How sensitive is the valuation to assumptions on revenue growth, margin, and the WACC? Do you agree with these assumptions? If not, how would the valuation change based on your modification?
• Provide an estimate for Facebook’s share value using market multiples. Explain your choice of comparable firms and multiples.
• As a potential shareholder, do you have any concerns about Facebook or its stock offering?
• The Ultimate Question: Do you recommend CXT to invest in Facebook’s initial public offering given the current price talk ($34 – $38)?

Case study questions answered in the second solution:

• How does Facebook Inc. make money? What are the value drivers of its business? What is its comparative advantage relative to other social networking companies?
• Why is Facebook going public? What is the planned use of proceeds from the offering?
• What was going on in the U.S. IPO markets prior to Facebook’s offering? What has been the performance of recent IPOs?
• What is the intrinsic value of a Facebook share? How does the valuation compare to the price talk from the underwriter?
• As a potential shareholder, what are your concerns about Facebook or its stock offering?
• What is your recommendation for the CXT Technology Fund?

Not the questions you were looking for? Submit your own questions & get answers .

Facebook, Inc.: The Initial Public Offering Case Answers

This case solution includes an Excel file with calculations.

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Executive Summary – Facebook, Inc.

Facebook Inc. is a social media application that Mark Zuckerberg founded in February 2004. The app was designed to use modern science and technology that allowed users to connect with people around the world.

Facebook’s users had increased drastically from 500 million in 2010 to 900 million in 2012. Based on the rising popularity and publicity of Facebook, it was merely a question of time before the company went public.

As Facebook planned to go public, the initial stock price range was between the $20s to mid-$30s per share; however, the price talk had raised its IPO price to $34 to $38 per share.

The chief analyst of CXTechnology Fund, McNeil, judged the riskiness of overpaying  Facebook’s IPO price. Yet, he did not want to miss this substantial opportunity, which could make CXTechnology profitable as well.

For this reason, McNeil would like to recommend that CXTechnology should invest in Facebook’s IPO and a proper price range of the stock.

Problem Overview

There are two main reasons why Facebook Inc. had to go public.

First of all, “the principal purposes of the IPO were to create a public market for the existing shareholders and to enable future access to the public equity markets” (case p.2). To be more specific, by going public, Facebook can raise funds from a broader pool of investors.

Using these funds, Facebook can develop additional capital or products that can make the company more competitive. By going public, Facebook can attract more investors to join the company to increase its funds and expand its market share.

In addition, mobile users have been an important contributor to Facebook’s growth, reaching 483 million daily active users worldwide in 2011.

Before the IPO, Facebook was unable to show ads to mobile users. Facebook needed to find a solution before it threatened to cannibalize the company’s advertising revenue.

Another reason IPO is attractive to Facebook is that the fees for underwriting listings were just 1.1 percent because of the growing prestige of the offering, compared with the typical 3 to 7 percent of the amount raised for equity IPO.

The underwriters also gave Facebook Inc. an overallotment option (“greenshoe”) to sell an additional 15% of the offering, up to 484 million shares (case p.7).

Another essential reason is that there were too many shareholders, which passed 500 million by 2010.

An antiquated Securities and Exchange Commission rule from 1964 says that “any private company with more than 500 ‘shareholders of record’ must adhere to the same financial disclosure requirements that public companies do, which means submitting detailed quarterly and annual financial reports, and dealing with all the scrutiny that powerful companies face when they open their books” (Paul Sloan).

Facebook would raise $6.1-6.8 billion from the IPO. According to the case, Facebook was willing to sell $421,233,612 shares and sold its shares at $34-38. The number of shares was made up of issuing 180,000,000 shares and 241,233,615 shares sold by existing stockholders.

Therefore, the total money raised from the IPO equaled the total number of shares multiplied by the price per share, whose result was also the same as $6.1-6.8 billion in the case.

According to the case, the planned use proceeds will be used for working capital and other general corporate purposes.

We estimated the other general corporate purposes would be operating expenses (which included the costs of broadening the number of users, research and development costs), acquisition costs, and investment costs (such as bonds and money market funds). Other potential costs may be the cost in which Facebook Inc. figures out a solution that allows ads to be displayed on mobile devices.

Original Sensitivity Analysis

Based on the DCF Valuation from the case, we did a sensitivity analysis on the assumptions of growth rate, terminal growth rate, terminal EBIT Margin, WACC, and terminal WACC.

We chose a 1% increase and decrease based on the case assumptions, then calculated the price change with each one percent change in those assumption values.

Table 1 shows the price change when each variable increases or decreases by 1%. Facebook’s estimated value/share was $35.47 based on Professor Aswath Damodaran’s assumptions.

Table 1: Sensitivity Analysis Based on Case Assumptions

To compare which variable has the highest sensitivity to Facebook Inc.’s stock price, we made a graph for the stock price change based on a…

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Facebook case study

The development of Facebook's strategy including business and revenue model

You use Facebook, but have you ever wondered about its business model and how it has evolved?  In my  E-business and E-commerce Management book we have reviewed the development of Facebook for over six years now. I think it's still a great case study for both students and professionals to learn from, since it shows many of the success factors needed for a new start-up, including the risks of alienating users when their privacy needs are not listened to.

It’s incredible that Facebook now has more than a billion monthly active users worldwide , yet has fewer than 5,000 employees.

In this case study which we aim to keep up-to-date between the new editions of my books, I have structured the review of Facebook strategy using some of the customer-related aspects of the Business Model Canvas .

Facebook's value proposition

In 2013, the Facebook mission is simply to ' make the world more open and connected '.

Previously, it described itself as:

'a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers. The company develops technologies that facilitate the sharing of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people’s real-world social connections. Anyone can sign up for Facebook and interact with the people they know in a trusted environment '.

You almost certainly know the story behind how the Facebook value proposition developed from watching the 2010 film The Social Network ? It describes how Facebook was founded while Mark Zuckerberg was a student at Harvard University - initially for limited Harvard student membership. The initial viral effect of the software was indicated since more than half of the undergraduate population at Harvard registered on the service within the first month!

Zuckerberg used open-source software PHP and the MySQL database to create the original 'TheFacebook.com' site and these technologies are still in use today.

The film also describes the long-running dispute on the ownership of Facebook since another Harvard-originated social networking site ‘HarvardConnection’, which later changed its name to ConnectU, alleged in September 2004 that Zuckerberg had used their source code to develop Facebook when they originally contracted him to help in building their site.

When Facebook first launched in February 2004, there were just three things that users could do on the site which are still core to the functionality of the site.

• 1. Users could create a profile with their picture and information.
• 2. View other people’s profiles.
• 3. Add people as friends.

Core Consumer Benefits

The latest Facebook SEC update explains these core consumer benefits defined by the company:

• Connect and Share with your friends. Staying connected is the core feature as we would expect, but note the more emotional underpinnings of the other elements of the value proposition.
• Discover and Learn. Facebook references public figures and organisations that interest them – available through Facebook company pages.
• Express yourself. A fundamental need and Facebook does this through it’s key features which it describes as the Timeline, News Feed, Photos and Videos and messaging through Email, Chat and Text.
• Stay connected everywhere . Referencing the importance of mobile use and use on other sites to Facebook’s users and business model. People can access Facebook through the website, mobile sites, smartphone apps, and featured phone products.

Value proposition for marketers and businesses

Facebook works hard to monetise its audience particularly since it held its initial public offering (IPO) on May 18, 2012. This was the biggest IPO for an Internet company, with a peak market capitalization of over $104 billion. Facebook describes its offer to businesses as...

' Marketers can engage with more than one billion monthly active users on Facebook or subsets of our users based on information people have chosen to share with us such as their age, location, gender, or interests. We offer marketers a unique combination of reach, relevance, social context, and engagement to enhance the value of their ads '.

Commercial companies or  Not-For-Profit organizations  can also create their own Facebook Pages for their company (currently free). Facebook users can then express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on the company Wall, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. When users become fans, they can optionally agree to be kept up to date about developments which then appear in their news feeds.

To encourage companies to advertise, Facebook uses an algorithm known as EdgeRank which determines the percentage of company status updates appear in a user’s newsfeed. Marketers need to work hard to maintain relevance of their posts using the techniques described by Marie Page in her explanation of EdgeRank .

Facebook's revenue model

Facebook has an ad-based revenue model. Some of the features of Facebook Ads   include:

• Targeting by age, gender, location, interests, and more.
• Alternative payment models: cost per click (CPC) or impression-based (CPM).
• ‘ Trusted Referrals’ or ‘Social Ads ’ – ads can also be shown to users whose friends have recently engaged with a company’s Facebook page or engaged with the company website.

Promises from Facebook at launch

At the time of the launch of ads, the Facebook blog made these comments, which indicates the delicate balance between advertising revenue and user experience. They said, first of all, What’s not changing?:

• Facebook will always stay clutter-free and clean.
• Facebook will never sell any of your information.
• You will always have control over your information and your Facebook experience.
• You will not see any more ads than you did before this'.

And what is changing?:

• ‘You now have a way to connect with products, businesses, bands, celebrities and more on Facebook.
• Ads should be getting more relevant and more meaningful to you'.

Facebook’s Strategy -  framework of key elements of SEC filing

• 1. Expand global community . Facebook names specific 'relatively less-penetrated, large markets' such as Brazil, India, Mexico and Japan.

As with many SEC filings of successful Internet businesses there is a clear commitment to user experience.

Facebook’s approach?   based on Insight: 'To provide the most compelling user experience, we continue to develop products and technologies focused on optimizing our social distribution channels to deliver the most useful content to each user by analyzing and organizing vast amounts of information in real time'.

Smart Insights (2012) quotes Andrew (Boz) Bosworth who is the Director of Engineering at Facebook as saying, 'Every day, we run hundreds of tests on Facebook, most of which are rolled out to a random sample of people to test their impact. For example, you may have seen a small test for saving news feed stories last week. Other products might require network effects to be properly tested, so in those cases we launch to everyone in a specific market, like a whole country'.

• 3. Mobile Products. Facebook is seeking to make these more engaging and more easily available. By the end of 2012 Facebook ad more than 680 million average monthly users of mobile services. The acquisition of photo sharing app Instagram in August 2012 was part of this strategy.

More than 95% of Facebook members have used at least one application built on Facebook Platform. Facebook Platform for mobile applications was launched in October 2007, although many Facebook users already interacted with their friends through mobile phones.

Facebook states: 'Our advertising strategy centres on the belief that ad products that are social, relevant, and well-integrated with other content on Facebook can enhance the user experience while providing an attractive return'.

Facebook explains its technology investments as focusing on analytics and development in areas including content optimization and delivery, graph query, media storage and serving, large-scale data management, and software performance.

6. Facebook’s competitors

Curious to think of a company as large as Facebook having competitors, it has new global rivals and local rivals!.  Facebook mentions Google+, which Google has integrated with some of its products, including search and Android, as well as other, largely regional, social networks that have strong positions in particular countries, such as Mixi in Japan and vKontakte and Odnoklassniki in Russia.

It also describes companies that offer microblogging (Twitter) , Developers of platforms such as Apple iOS and Google Android and Games Developers as key competitors.

It has taken the decision not to create a competing mobile platforms, instead in 2013 launching 'Facebook Home on Android' to increase usage of Facebook on these devices .

Risk factors

Today Facebook states that ' Trust is a cornerstone of our business' and they now dedicate significant resources to the goal of building user trust through developing and implementing programs designed to protect user privacy, promote a safe environment, and assure the security of user data.

Facebook has to some extent learned this lesson from early mistakes, with incidents including:

• Initial concerns about privacy of member data – 14 December 2005. Two MIT students downloaded over 70,000 Facebook profiles from four schools (MIT, NYU, the University of Oklahoma, and Harvard) using an automated script, as part of a research project on Facebook privacy.
• New feed functionality launched – September 2006. New information feeds were launched in mid-2006 which show the challenges of balancing the benefit of new functionality against disrupting existing user habits.Writing in the Facebook blog in September 2006, Mark Zuckerberg said, ' We’ve been getting a lot of feedback about Mini-Feed and News Feed. We think they are great products, but we know that many of you are not immediate fans, and have found them overwhelming and cluttered. Other people are concerned that non-friends can see too much about them. We are listening to all your suggestions about how to improve the product; it’s brand new and still evolving'.   Later, in an open letter on the blog dated 8 September 2006, Zuckerberg said, ' We really messed this one up. When we launched News Feed and Mini-Feed, we were trying to provide you with a stream of information about your social world. Instead, we did a bad job of explaining what the new features were and an even worse job of giving you control of them. I’d like to try to correct those errors now'.

Privacy Concerns sparked by Beacon Technology (November 2007)

Facebook received a lot of negative publicity on it's new advertising format related to the ‘Beacon’ tracking system.

How did Mark Zuckerberg respond in his blog?(5 December 2007) 'About a month ago, we released a new feature called Beacon to try to help people share information with their friends about things they do on the web. We’ve made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we’ve made even more with how we’ve handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it. While I am disappointed with our mistakes, we appreciate all the feedback we have received from our users. I’d like to discuss what we have learned and how we have improved Beacon'.

'We were excited about Beacon because we believe a lot of information people want to share isn’t on Facebook, and if we found the right balance, Beacon would give people an easy and controlled way to share more of that information with their friends'.

What did they admit to missing?  - the right balance. It was supposed to be lightweight - touch it to work. The problem  was following an opt-out system instead of opt-in - as someone would forget to decline to share something; Beacon still went ahead and shared it with their friends. It took them too long after people started contacting them to change the product so that users had to explicitly approve what they wanted to share.

Instead of acting quickly, Facebook took too long to decide on the right solution!.

Privacy setting concerns – Autumn to 2009 to Spring 2010

In December 2009, Facebook implemented new privacy settings. This mean't some information, including ‘lists of friends’, was ‘publicly available’, when it was previously possible to restricted.

Photos and some personal information were also public unless users were sufficiently knowledgeable and active to limit access. Privacy campaigners including the Electronic Frontier Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union criticized the changes. In May 201, further changes were made to give users greater control and simplify the settings.

Facebook lists some of it's other key risk factors as:

• users increasingly engage with other products or activities; failure to introduce new and improved products.
• introduce new products or services not liked; users feel that their Facebook experience is diminished as a result of the decisions made with respect to the frequency, prominence, and size of ads that are displayed.
• unable to continue to develop engaging products for mobile devices, that work with a variety of mobile operating systems and networks, and that achieve a high level of market acceptance.
• unable to manage and prioritise information to ensure users are presented with content that is interesting, useful, and relevant to them.
• users adopt new technologies where Facebook may not be featured or otherwise available.

Key sources for the latest information on Facebook

• All Facebook  and Inside Facebook  are sites specializing in reporting all developments at Facebook.
• Key Facts  -  updated quarterly at close of year.
• SEC updates – Security and Exchange Commission annual report filings give great insights into how Facebook positions itself and what it sees as its risk factors.
• Smart Insights Facebook marketing update hub page  - updates and advice covering the major developments that marketers need to be aware of.
• Social Bakers - Facebook statistics by country and brand popularity
• Wikipedia (2013)  - Wikipedia Pages for Facebook.

Do let us know of any other resources useful for studying Facebook's strategy and business model.

By Dave Chaffey

Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here . Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice . In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary . Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question .

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United States v. Meta Platforms, Inc., f/k/a Facebook, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.)

On June 27, 2022, the court approved the parties’ settlement agreement and entered a final judgment in United States v. Meta Platforms, Inc., f/k/a Facebook, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.).  The complaint , which was filed on June 21, 2022, alleged that Meta’s housing advertising system discriminated against Facebook users based on their race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, and national origin, in violation of the Fair Housing Act (FHA).  Specifically, the complaint alleged, among other things, that Meta uses algorithms in determining which Facebook users receive housing ads and that those algorithms rely, in part, on characteristics protected under the FHA.  Under the settlement, Meta stopped using an advertising tool (known as the “Special Ad Audience” tool) for housing ads and developed a new system, the Variance Reduction System (VRS), to address racial and other disparities caused by its use of personalization algorithms in its ad delivery system for housing ads.  Under the terms of the June 2022 settlement, Meta also will not provide any ad targeting options for housing advertisers that directly describe or relate to FHA-protected characteristics.  The settlement also required Meta to pay a civil penalty of $115,054, the maximum penalty available under the FHA at the time of the settlement.  The case involves a Secretary-initiated HUD complaint and was referred to the Justice Department after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) conducted an investigation and issued a charge of discrimination.  On January 9, 2023, the Justice Department announced that it reached agreement with Meta, as required by the settlement, on compliance targets for the Variance Reduction System.  On June 29, 2023, the third-party reviewer, Guidehouse Inc., issued its first report on VRS Compliance Metrics Verification .  On October 30, Guidehouse issued its second report on VRS Compliance Metrics Verification . On March 1, 2024, Guidehouse issued its third report on VRS Compliance Metrics Verification .  

Press Release (1/9/2023) Press Release (6/21/2022)

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Facebook parent Meta will pay $725M to settle a privacy suit over Cambridge Analytica

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg walks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on April 4, 2013. Facebook parent company Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class-action privacy lawsuit. Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP hide caption

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg walks at the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., on April 4, 2013. Facebook parent company Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class-action privacy lawsuit.

Facebook parent company Meta has agreed to pay $725 million to settle a class-action lawsuit claiming it improperly shared users' information with Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm used by the Trump campaign.

The proposed settlement is a result of revelations in 2018 that information of up to 87 million people may have been improperly accessed by the third-party firm, which filed for bankruptcy in 2018. This is the largest recovery ever in a data privacy class action and the most Facebook has paid to settle a private class action, the plaintiffs' lawyers said in a court filing Thursday.

Meta did not admit wrongdoing and maintains that its users consented to the practices and suffered no actual damages. Meta spokesperson Dina El-Kassaby Luce said in a statement that the settlement was "in the best interest of its community and shareholders" and that the company has revamped its approach to privacy.

Plaintiffs' lawyers said about 250 million to 280 million people may be eligible for payments as part of the class action settlement. The amount of the individual payments will depend on the number of people who come forward with valid claims.

"The amount of the recovery is particularly striking given that Facebook argued that its users consented to the practices at issue, and that the class suffered no actual damages," the plaintiffs' lawyers said in the court filing.

4 Key Takeaways From Washington's Big Tech Hearing On 'Monopoly Power'

FTC To Hold Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Liable For Any Future Privacy Violations

Facebook's data leak to Cambridge Analytica sparked global backlash and government investigations into the company's privacy practices the past several years.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave high-profile testimonies in 2020 before Congress and as part of the Federal Trade Commission's privacy case for which Facebook also agreed to a $5 billion fine. The tech giant also agreed to pay $100 million to resolve U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claims that Facebook misled investors about the risks of user data misuse.

Facebook first learned of the leak in 2015, tracing the violation back to a Cambridge University psychology professor who harvested data of Facebook users through an app to create a personality test and passed it on to Cambridge Analytica.

Facebook Pays $643,000 Fine For Role In Cambridge Analytica Scandal

Cambridge Analytica was in the business to create psychological profiles of American voters so that campaigns could tailor their pitches to different people. The firm was used by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign and then later by former President Donald Trump's campaign after he secured the Republican nomination.

According to a source close to the Trump campaign's data operations, Cambridge Analytica staffers did not use psychological profiling for his campaign but rather focused on more basic goals, like increasing online fundraising and reaching out to undecided voters.

Whistleblower Christopher Wylie then exposed the firm for its role in Brexit in 2019. He said Cambridge Analytica used Facebook user data to target people susceptible to conspiracy theories and convince British voters to support exiting the European Union. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was the vice president and U.S. hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer owned much of the firm at the time.

The court has set a hearing for March 2, 2023, when a federal judge is expected to give the settlement final approval.

NPR's Bobby Allyn contributed reporting.

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Facebook (Meta) PESTEL/PESTLE Analysis & Recommendations

Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook Inc.) succeeds by addressing issues in its industry, as characterized in this PESTEL/PESTLE analysis of the social media business. The PESTLE/PESTEL analysis model presents an external analysis of the most important factors in the company’s remote or macro-environment. As a top player in the international social media market, Meta has the capabilities to maintain its industry position through popularity, brand development, and research and development investment. However, this PESTLE analysis of Facebook indicates the need for adjustments in strategies to ensure that its social networking website, mobile apps, and display advertising services remain attractive in the face of competition with the social media and digital advertising businesses of Google (Alphabet) , Microsoft , X (Twitter), and Snap (Snapchat). Also, Facebook Marketplace competes with Amazon , eBay , and Walmart Marketplace. Considering the industry landscape examined in this PESTEL analysis and the level of competition determined in the Five Forces analysis of Facebook (Meta Platforms) , it is essential to implement strategies that strengthen the company’s competitive advantages to support continued growth.

This PESTLE/PESTEL analysis of Meta identifies the external factors that influence the condition of Facebook’s remote or macro-environment. These external factors require the company to address issues in the industry, like political and technological factors. Strategic alignment with the conditions of the industry environment defined in this PESTLE analysis helps in satisfying Facebook’s (Meta’s) mission statement and vision statement , especially in providing effective tools for communication in the global social networking market.

Political Factors Affecting Facebook’s Business

Facebook’s business is linked to the political landscape. In this element of the PESTEL analysis, the effects of governments as external factors in Meta’s remote or macro-environment are determined. Political movements have the power to shape the progress of businesses and entire industries. The following are the major political factors influencing Facebook:

• Political stability in developed countries (opportunity)
• Popular governmental support for globalization (opportunity)
• Political barriers in the Chinese market (threat)
• Political action on online data (threat)

In this PESTLE analysis case, the political stability of developed countries presents opportunities for Meta to continue diversifying its business in these markets. Also, Facebook has the opportunity to expand its social media and display advertising services worldwide, based on governmental support for globalization. However, Facebook suffers from political barriers in China. The company’s potential global growth is limited because of Chinese censorship. In addition, regarding data privacy and security issues involving business organizations, governments are increasingly working to limit online data collection, sharing, and processing. In the PESTEL analysis model, this external factor limits Facebook’s growth. Based on this element of the PESTLE analysis of Meta, the company must enhance data privacy and security, and continue negotiating with governments to further open the display advertising market.

Economic Factors Important to Meta

Economic conditions shape Facebook’s business growth. This element of the PESTEL analysis considers the impact of economic trends and conditions on the firm’s remote or macro-environment. The economic factors that affect Meta are as follows:

• Increasing stability of developing countries (opportunity)
• Rapid economic growth of developing countries (opportunity)
• Increasing disposable incomes (opportunity)

In this PESTLE analysis case, Facebook has the opportunity to increase its market penetration efforts in developing countries with increasing economic stability. In relation, the rapid economic growth of these countries leads to an improvement of infrastructure, including telecommunications infrastructure facilitating Meta’s growth. In this PESTEL analysis, such an external factor supports an expansion of access to Facebook’s social network. Moreover, the increasing disposable incomes in developing countries improve users’ capacity to purchase devices to access the company’s services, thereby also contributing to business expansion. Such economic conditions support Facebook’s (Meta’s) generic competitive strategy and intensive growth strategies . This element of the PESTEL analysis indicates that Facebook has major opportunities to expand its multinational operations, especially through market penetration.

Social/Sociocultural Factors Influencing Facebook’s Business Environment

Facebook’s popularity and global reach is under the influence of social conditions. The impact of sociocultural trends and changes on Meta’s remote or macro-environment is determined in this element of the PESTEL/PESTLE analysis. The following sociocultural factors are most notable in the case of Facebook:

• Increasing preference for high-quality services (opportunity)
• Increasing online buying (opportunity)
• Increasing support for corporate social responsibility (opportunity)

With increasing financial capacity and improving living conditions, people are increasingly emphasizing high quality in the services that they use. In the context of this PESTEL analysis of Meta, such a social condition presents an opportunity for Facebook to improve its service quality standards to satisfy and retain clients who pay for the company’s display advertising services. In addition, increasing online buying worldwide creates opportunities for Facebook to develop additional services to profit from retail sales generated through its social networking and marketplace services. For example, Meta can offer new or better marketplace tools to address this trend. Based on the external factors in this PESTEL analysis, the company also has the opportunity to enhance its corporate social responsibility programs as a way of satisfying the corresponding expectations of users. Based on the external factors in this element of the PESTLE analysis of Facebook, there are major opportunities to improve the company’s services to optimize competitive advantages.

Technological Factors in Meta’s Business

Technologies impact Facebook, considering that it is a business founded on online technologies. This element of the PESTLE analysis identifies the main technological influences on Meta’s remote or macro-environment. The following technological factors affect Facebook:

• Increasing use of mobile devices (opportunity)
• Increasing number of online social media companies (threat)
• Diversification of online retail firms (threat)

Facebook has the opportunity to improve user experience involving its mobile apps. This opportunity is based on the trend of increasing mobile device usage worldwide. However, this PESTEL analysis points to the threat of increasing competition, as more online social networks attempt to attract users away from Meta’s social media services. This technological trend leads to market saturation alongside competition, which is a threat noted in the SWOT analysis of Facebook (Meta Platforms) . Furthermore, this PESTLE analysis considers how the diversification of online retail firms threatens to compete with Facebook’s marketplace and advertising services. For example, e-commerce giants, like Amazon , are in a position to offer online advertising services through affiliate websites, to directly compete with Facebook’s services. This element of the PESTEL analysis shows that Facebook must continue improving its social media and display advertising services to retain customers.

Ecological/Environmental Factors

Facebook’s social media business is partly linked to the natural environment. The effects of ecological issues and trends on the company’s remote or macro-environment are determined in this element of the PESTEL/PESTLE analysis. The following ecological factors influence Meta:

• Increasing emphasis on business sustainability (opportunity)
• Increasing complexity of waste disposal standards (opportunity)
• Climate change (threat & opportunity)

Facebook has the opportunity to enhance its social media business sustainability to satisfy concerns regarding the natural environment. Also, the context of this PESTEL analysis shows that Meta can implement better waste disposal policies and standards for its corporate operations. This effort can address the increasing complexity of waste disposal standards, especially in Western countries. Facebook faces the threat of climate change, which may prompt transferring the company’s servers and other equipment to other locations in the future. Improving Facebook’s (Meta’s) corporate social responsibility standing can help address the external factors shown in this element of the PESTLE analysis.

Legal Factors

Laws impose requirements and limits on Facebook’s business. This element of the PESTLE analysis covers the effects of legal systems and regulations on Meta’s remote or macro-environment. The legal factors notable in Facebook’s case are as follows:

• Improving patent laws worldwide (opportunity)
• Increasing regulatory support for free Wi-Fi (opportunity)
• Internet regulation in China (threat & opportunity)
• Increasing regulation on online data (threat)

Facebook has the opportunity to innovate and introduce new products, with the expectation of legal protection based on improving patent laws around the world. In addition, this PESTEL analysis points to the increasing coverage of free Wi-Fi as a beneficial trend. For example, based on this external factor, Meta can expand its social media reach in more areas worldwide. However, Facebook suffers from its ban in China. Nonetheless, the firm has the opportunity to adjust its services and negotiate with the Chinese government to gain access to the country’s online social networking market. Regulation of online data collection, sharing, and processing continues to increase. In the PESTLE analysis model, this external factor threatens Meta and the online display advertising industry. Overall, this element of the PESTEL analysis shows that legal factors mainly provide opportunities that Facebook can take to expand its operations and market reach.

PESTLE/PESTEL Analysis of Meta Platforms (Facebook) – Recommendations

This PESTLE analysis of Meta (Facebook) stresses the importance of strategic reforms to address major opportunities in the global social media and online advertising market. The company needs strategies to protect the business from the threats identified in this external analysis. For example, Meta’s management and strategies need to address the threat of governmental crackdown and corresponding regulation on Facebook’s online data collection and processing. Such issues defined in this PESTLE analysis require strategic management measures that recognize the urgency of governmental and regulatory implementations in Facebook’s strategic management.

Based on this PESTEL analysis, it is recommended that Facebook continue addressing issues with China’s government to penetrate the country’s social media market, which is among the biggest in the world. The objective is to have the ban on Meta’s social network lifted. This PESTLE analysis also supports the recommendation that the company should enhance Facebook Marketplace to support online retailers and create new revenue streams for the corporation. Moreover, based on this PESTLE analysis, it is recommended that Facebook diversify its business. Diversification can reduce the firm’s market risk exposure.

• Borenstein, B. E., & Taylor, C. R. (2023). The effects of targeted digital advertising on consumer welfare. Journal of Strategic Marketing , 1-16.
• Martinez-Contreras, R. M., Hernandez-Mora, N. C., Vargas-Leguizamon, Y. R., & Borja-Barrera, S. M. (2022). PESTEL Analysis and the Porter’s Five Forces: An Integrated Model of Strategic Sectors. In Handbook of Research on Organizational Sustainability in Turbulent Economies (pp. 292-314). IGI Global.
• Meta Platforms, Inc. – Form 10-K .
• Meta Platforms, Inc. – Internet Regulations .
• Meta Platforms and Technologies .
• Ou, M., Zheng, H., Kim, H. K., & Chen, X. (2023). A meta-analysis of social media fatigue: Drivers and a major consequence. Computers in Human Behavior, 140 , 107597.
• U.S. Department of Commerce – International Trade Administration – Software and Information Technology Industry .
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Facebook, Inc. is a Harvard Business (HBR) Case Study on Innovation & Entrepreneurship , Fern Fort University provides HBR case study assignment help for just $11. Our case solution is based on Case Study Method expertise & our global insights.

Innovation & Entrepreneurship Case Study | Authors :: Frank T. Rothaermel

Case study description.

The case dilemma centers around Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer (COO) and second in command. She is looking to take the company to the next level: not only to continued growth in mobile ads, but to dominance in the digital ad space. For this to occur, Facebook would somehow have to top Google in both display and search ads, despite only having nominal presence and expertise in display ads. Moreover, Facebook is facing the continued convergence in this fast-moving industry

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Step 1 - reading up harvard business review fundamentals on the innovation & entrepreneurship.

Even before you start reading a business case study just make sure that you have brushed up the Harvard Business Review (HBR) fundamentals on the Innovation & Entrepreneurship. Brushing up HBR fundamentals will provide a strong base for investigative reading. Often readers scan through the business case study without having a clear map in mind. This leads to unstructured learning process resulting in missed details and at worse wrong conclusions. Reading up the HBR fundamentals helps in sketching out business case study analysis and solution roadmap even before you start reading the case study. It also provides starting ideas as fundamentals often provide insight into some of the aspects that may not be covered in the business case study itself.

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To write an emphatic case study analysis and provide pragmatic and actionable solutions, you must have a strong grasps of the facts and the central problem of the HBR case study. Begin slowly - underline the details and sketch out the business case study description map. In some cases you will able to find the central problem in the beginning itself while in others it may be in the end in form of questions. Business case study paragraph by paragraph mapping will help you in organizing the information correctly and provide a clear guide to go back to the case study if you need further information. My case study strategy involves -

• Marking out the protagonist and key players in the case study from the very start.
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Once you are comfortable with the details and objective of the business case study proceed forward to put some details into the analysis template. You can do business case study analysis by following Fern Fort University step by step instructions -

• Company history is provided in the first half of the case. You can use this history to draw a growth path and illustrate vision, mission and strategic objectives of the organization. Often history is provided in the case not only to provide a background to the problem but also provide the scope of the solution that you can write for the case study.
• HBR case studies provide anecdotal instances from managers and employees in the organization to give a feel of real situation on the ground. Use these instances and opinions to mark out the organization's culture, its people priorities & inhibitions.
• Make a time line of the events and issues in the case study. Time line can provide the clue for the next step in organization's journey. Time line also provides an insight into the progressive challenges the company is facing in the case study.

Step 4 - SWOT Analysis of Facebook, Inc.

Once you finished the case analysis, time line of the events and other critical details. Focus on the following -

• Zero down on the central problem and two to five related problems in the case study.
• Do the SWOT analysis of the Facebook, Inc. . SWOT analysis is a strategic tool to map out the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats that a firm is facing.
• SWOT analysis and SWOT Matrix will help you to clearly mark out - Strengths Weakness Opportunities & Threats that the organization or manager is facing in the Facebook, Inc.
• SWOT analysis will also provide a priority list of problem to be solved.
• You can also do a weighted SWOT analysis of Facebook, Inc. HBR case study.

Step 5 - Porter 5 Forces / Strategic Analysis of Industry Analysis Facebook, Inc.

In our live classes we often come across business managers who pinpoint one problem in the case and build a case study analysis and solution around that singular point. Business environments are often complex and require holistic solutions. You should try to understand not only the organization but also the industry which the business operates in. Porter Five Forces is a strategic analysis tool that will help you in understanding the relative powers of the key players in the business case study and what sort of pragmatic and actionable case study solution is viable in the light of given facts.

Step 6 - PESTEL, PEST / STEP Analysis of Facebook, Inc.

Another way of understanding the external environment of the firm in Facebook, Inc. is to do a PESTEL - Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental & Legal analysis of the environment the firm operates in. You should make a list of factors that have significant impact on the organization and factors that drive growth in the industry. You can even identify the source of firm's competitive advantage based on PESTEL analysis and Organization's Core Competencies.

Step 7 - Organizing & Prioritizing the Analysis into Facebook, Inc. Case Study Solution

Once you have developed multipronged approach and work out various suggestions based on the strategic tools. The next step is organizing the solution based on the requirement of the case. You can use the following strategy to organize the findings and suggestions.

• Build a corporate level strategy - organizing your findings and recommendations in a way to answer the larger strategic objective of the firm. It include using the analysis to answer the company's vision, mission and key objectives , and how your suggestions will take the company to next level in achieving those goals.
• Business Unit Level Solution - The case study may put you in a position of a marketing manager of a small brand. So instead of providing recommendations for overall company you need to specify the marketing objectives of that particular brand. You have to recommend business unit level recommendations. The scope of the recommendations will be limited to the particular unit but you have to take care of the fact that your recommendations are don't directly contradict the company's overall strategy. For example you can recommend a low cost strategy but the company core competency is design differentiation.
• Case study solutions can also provide recommendation for the business manager or leader described in the business case study.

Step 8 -Implementation Framework

The goal of the business case study is not only to identify problems and recommend solutions but also to provide a framework to implement those case study solutions. Implementation framework differentiates good case study solutions from great case study solutions. If you able to provide a detailed implementation framework then you have successfully achieved the following objectives -

• Detailed understanding of the case,
• Clarity of HBR case study fundamentals,
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• Developed an ability to prioritize recommendations based on probability of their successful implementation.

Implementation framework helps in weeding out non actionable recommendations, resulting in awesome Facebook, Inc. case study solution.

Step 9 - Take a Break

Once you finished the case study implementation framework. Take a small break, grab a cup of coffee or whatever you like, go for a walk or just shoot some hoops.

Step 10 - Critically Examine Facebook, Inc. case study solution

After refreshing your mind, read your case study solution critically. When we are writing case study solution we often have details on our screen as well as in our head. This leads to either missing details or poor sentence structures. Once refreshed go through the case solution again - improve sentence structures and grammar, double check the numbers provided in your analysis and question your recommendations. Be very slow with this process as rushing through it leads to missing key details. Once done it is time to hit the attach button.

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Facebook Inc Case Analysis and Case Solution

Posted by Peter Williams on Aug-09-2018

Introduction of Facebook Inc Case Solution

The Facebook Inc case study is a Harvard Business Review case study, which presents a simulated practical experience to the reader allowing them to learn about real life problems in the business world. The Facebook Inc case consisted of a central issue to the organization, which had to be identified, analysed and creative solutions had to be drawn to tackle the issue. This paper presents the solved Facebook Inc case analysis and case solution. The method through which the analysis is done is mentioned, followed by the relevant tools used in finding the solution.

The case solution first identifies the central issue to the Facebook Inc case study, and the relevant stakeholders affected by this issue. This is known as the problem identification stage. After this, the relevant tools and models are used, which help in the case study analysis and case study solution. The tools used in identifying the solution consist of the SWOT Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, PESTEL Analysis, VRIO analysis, Value Chain Analysis, BCG Matrix analysis, Ansoff Matrix analysis, and the Marketing Mix analysis. The solution consists of recommended strategies to overcome this central issue. It is a good idea to also propose alternative case study solutions, because if the main solution is not found feasible, then the alternative solutions could be implemented. Lastly, a good case study solution also includes an implementation plan for the recommendation strategies. This shows how through a step-by-step procedure as to how the central issue can be resolved.

Problem Identification of Facebook Inc Case Solution

Harvard Business Review cases involve a central problem that is being faced by the organization and these problems affect a number of stakeholders. In the problem identification stage, the problem faced by Facebook Inc is identified through reading of the case. This could be mentioned at the start of the reading, the middle or the end. At times in a case analysis, the problem may be clearly evident in the reading of the HBR case. At other times, finding the issue is the job of the person analysing the case. It is also important to understand what stakeholders are affected by the problem and how. The goals of the stakeholders and are the organization are also identified to ensure that the case study analysis are consistent with these.

Analysis of the Facebook Inc HBR Case Study

The objective of the case should be focused on. This is doing the Facebook Inc Case Solution. This analysis can be proceeded in a step-by-step procedure to ensure that effective solutions are found.

• In the first step, a growth path of the company can be formulated that lays down its vision, mission and strategic aims. These can usually be developed using the company history is provided in the case. Company history is helpful in a Business Case study as it helps one understand what the scope of the solutions will be for the case study.
• The next step is of understanding the company; its people, their priorities and the overall culture. This can be done by using company history. It can also be done by looking at anecdotal instances of managers or employees that are usually included in an HBR case study description to give the reader a real feel of the situation.
• Lastly, a timeline of the issues and events in the case needs to be made. Arranging events in a timeline allows one to predict the next few events that are likely to take place. It also helps one in developing the case study solutions. The timeline also helps in understanding the continuous challenges that are being faced by the organisation.

SWOT analysis of Facebook Inc

An important tool that helps in addressing the central issue of the case and coming up with Facebook Inc HBR case solution is the SWOT analysis.

• The SWOT analysis is a strategic management tool that lists down in the form of a matrix, an organisation's internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats. It helps in the strategic analysis of Facebook Inc.
• Once this listing has been done, a clearer picture can be developed in regards to how strategies will be formed to address the main problem. For example, strengths will be used as an advantage in solving the issue.

Therefore, the SWOT analysis is a helpful tool in coming up with the Facebook Inc Case Study answers. One does not need to remain restricted to using the traditional SWOT analysis, but the advanced TOWS matrix or weighted average SWOT analysis can also be used.

Porter Five Forces Analysis for Facebook Inc

Another helpful tool in finding the case solutions is of Porter's Five Forces analysis. This is also a strategic tool that is used to analyse the competitive environment of the industry in which Facebook Inc operates in. Analysis of the industry is important as businesses do not work in isolation in real life, but are affected by the business environment of the industry that they operate in. Harvard Business case studies represent real-life situations, and therefore, an analysis of the industry's competitive environment needs to be carried out to come up with more holistic case study solutions. In Porter's Five Forces analysis, the industry is analysed along 5 dimensions.

• These are the threats that the industry faces due to new entrants.
• It includes the threat of substitute products.
• It includes the bargaining power of buyers in the industry.
• It includes the bargaining power of suppliers in an industry.
• Lastly, the overall rivalry or competition within the industry is analysed.

This tool helps one understand the relative powers of the major players in the industry and its overall competitive dynamics. Actionable and practical solutions can then be developed by keeping these factors into perspective.

PESTEL Analysis of Facebook Inc

Another helpful tool that should be used in finding the case study solutions is the PESTEL analysis. This also looks at the external business environment of the organisation helps in finding case study Analysis to real-life business issues as in HBR cases.

• The PESTEL analysis particularly looks at the macro environmental factors that affect the industry. These are the political, environmental, social, technological, environmental and legal (regulatory) factors affecting the industry.
• Factors within each of these 6 should be listed down, and analysis should be made as to how these affect the organisation under question.
• These factors are also responsible for the future growth and challenges within the industry. Hence, they should be taken into consideration when coming up with the Facebook Inc case solution.

VRIO Analysis of Facebook Inc

This is an analysis carried out to know about the internal strengths and capabilities of Facebook Inc. Under the VRIO analysis, the following steps are carried out:

• The internal resources of Facebook Inc are listed down.
• Each of these resources are assessed in terms of the value it brings to the organization.
• Each resource is assessed in terms of how rare it is. A rare resource is one that is not commonly used by competitors.
• Each resource is assessed whether it could be imitated by competition easily or not.
• Lastly, each resource is assessed in terms of whether the organization can use it to an advantage or not.

The analysis done on the 4 dimensions; Value, Rareness, Imitability, and Organization. If a resource is high on all of these 4, then it brings long-term competitive advantage. If a resource is high on Value, Rareness, and Imitability, then it brings an unused competitive advantage. If a resource is high on Value and Rareness, then it only brings temporary competitive advantage. If a resource is only valuable, then it’s a competitive parity. If it’s none, then it can be regarded as a competitive disadvantage.

Value Chain Analysis of Facebook Inc

The Value chain analysis of Facebook Inc helps in identifying the activities of an organization, and how these add value in terms of cost reduction and differentiation. This tool is used in the case study analysis as follows:

• The firm’s primary and support activities are listed down.
• Identifying the importance of these activities in the cost of the product and the differentiation they produce.
• Lastly, differentiation or cost reduction strategies are to be used for each of these activities to increase the overall value provided by these activities.

Recognizing value creating activities and enhancing the value that they create allow Facebook Inc to increase its competitive advantage.

BCG Matrix of Facebook Inc

The BCG Matrix is an important tool in deciding whether an organization should invest or divest in its strategic business units. The matrix involves placing the strategic business units of a business in one of four categories; question marks, stars, dogs and cash cows. The placement in these categories depends on the relative market share of the organization and the market growth of these strategic business units. The steps to be followed in this analysis is as follows:

• Identify the relative market share of each strategic business unit.
• Identify the market growth of each strategic business unit.
• Place these strategic business units in one of four categories. Question Marks are those strategic business units with high market share and low market growth rate. Stars are those strategic business units with high market share and high market growth rate. Cash Cows are those strategic business units with high market share and low market growth rate. Dogs are those strategic business units with low market share and low growth rate.
• Relevant strategies should be implemented for each strategic business unit depending on its position in the matrix.

The strategies identified from the Facebook Inc BCG matrix and included in the case pdf. These are either to further develop the product, penetrate the market, develop the market, diversification, investing or divesting.

Ansoff Matrix of Facebook Inc

Ansoff Matrix is an important strategic tool to come up with future strategies for Facebook Inc in the case solution. It helps decide whether an organization should pursue future expansion in new markets and products or should it focus on existing markets and products.

• The organization can penetrate into existing markets with its existing products. This is known as market penetration strategy.
• The organization can develop new products for the existing market. This is known as product development strategy.
• The organization can enter new markets with its existing products. This is known as market development strategy.
• The organization can enter into new markets with new products. This is known as a diversification strategy.

The choice of strategy depends on the analysis of the previous tools used and the level of risk the organization is willing to take.

Marketing Mix of Facebook Inc

Facebook Inc needs to bring out certain responses from the market that it targets. To do so, it will need to use the marketing mix, which serves as a tool in helping bring out responses from the market. The 4 elements of the marketing mix are Product, Price, Place and Promotions. The following steps are required to carry out a marketing mix analysis and include this in the case study analysis.

• Analyse the company’s products and devise strategies to improve the product offering of the company.
• Analyse the company’s price points and devise strategies that could be based on competition, value or cost.
• Analyse the company’s promotion mix. This includes the advertisement, public relations, personal selling, sales promotion, and direct marketing. Strategies will be devised which makes use of a few or all of these elements.
• Analyse the company’s distribution and reach. Strategies can be devised to improve the availability of the company’s products.

Facebook Inc Blue Ocean Strategy

The strategies devised and included in the Facebook Inc case memo should have a blue ocean strategy. A blue ocean strategy is a strategy that involves firms seeking uncontested market spaces, which makes the competition of the company irrelevant. It involves coming up with new and unique products or ideas through innovation. This gives the organization a competitive advantage over other firms, unlike a red ocean strategy.

Competitors analysis of Facebook Inc

The PESTEL analysis discussed previously looked at the macro environmental factors affecting business, but not the microenvironmental factors. One of the microenvironmental factors are competitors, which are addressed by a competitor analysis. The Competitors analysis of Facebook Inc looks at the direct and indirect competitors within the industry that it operates in.

• This involves a detailed analysis of their actions and how these would affect the future strategies of Facebook Inc.
• It involves looking at the current market share of the company and its competitors.
• It should compare the marketing mix elements of competitors, their supply chain, human resources, financial strength etc.
• It also should look at the potential opportunities and threats that these competitors pose on the company.

Organisation of the Analysis into Facebook Inc Case Study Solution

Once various tools have been used to analyse the case, the findings of this analysis need to be incorporated into practical and actionable solutions. These solutions will also be the Facebook Inc case answers. These are usually in the form of strategies that the organisation can adopt. The following step-by-step procedure can be used to organise the Harvard Business case solution and recommendations:

• The first step of the solution is to come up with a corporate level strategy for the organisation. This part consists of solutions that address issues faced by the organisation on a strategic level. This could include suggestions, changes or recommendations to the company's vision, mission and its strategic objectives. It can include recommendations on how the organisation can work towards achieving these strategic objectives. Furthermore, it needs to be explained how the stated recommendations will help in solving the main issue mentioned in the case and where the company will stand in the future as a result of these.
• The second step of the solution is to come up with a business level strategy. The HBR case studies may present issues faced by a part of the organisation. For example, the issues may be stated for marketing and the role of a marketing manager needs to be assumed. So, recommendations and suggestions need to address the strategy of the marketing department in this case. Therefore, the strategic objectives of this business unit (Marketing) will be laid down in the solutions and recommendations will be made as to how to achieve these objectives. Similar would be the case for any other business unit or department such as human resources, finance, IT etc. The important thing to note here is that the business level strategy needs to be aligned with the overall corporate strategy of the organisation. For example, if one suggests the organisation to focus on differentiation for competitive advantage as a corporate level strategy, then it can't be recommended for the Facebook Inc Case Study Solution that the business unit should focus on costs.
• The third step is not compulsory but depends from case to case. In some HBR case studies, one may be required to analyse an issue at a department. This issue may be analysed for a manager or employee as well. In these cases, recommendations need to be made for these people. The solution may state that objectives that these people need to achieve and how these objectives would be achieved.

The case study analysis and solution, and Facebook Inc case answers should be written down in the Facebook Inc case memo, clearly identifying which part shows what. The Facebook Inc case should be in a professional format, presenting points clearly that are well understood by the reader.

Alternate solution to the Facebook Inc HBR case study

It is important to have more than one solution to the case study. This is the alternate solution that would be implemented if the original proposed solution is found infeasible or impossible due to a change in circumstances. The alternate solution for Facebook Inc is presented in the same way as the original solution, where it consists of a corporate level strategy, business level strategy and other recommendations.

Implementation of Facebook Inc Case Solution

The case study does not end at just providing recommendations to the issues at hand. One is also required to provide how these recommendations would be implemented. This is shown through a proper implementation framework. A detailed implementation framework helps in distinguishing between an average and an above average case study answer. A good implementation framework shows the proposed plan and how the organisations' resources would be used to achieve the objectives. It also lays down the changes needed to be made as well as the assumptions in the process.

• A proper implementation framework shows that one has clearly understood the case study and the main issue within it.
• It shows that one has been clarified with the HBR fundamentals on the topic.
• It shows that the details provided in the case have been properly analysed.
• It shows that one has developed an ability to prioritise recommendations and how these could be successfully implemented.
• The implementation framework also helps by removing out any recommendations that are not practical or actionable as these could not be implemented. Therefore, the implementation framework ensures that the solution to the Facebook Inc Harvard case is complete and properly answered.

Recommendations and Action Plan for Facebook Inc case analysis

For Facebook Inc, based on the SWOT Analysis, Porter Five Forces Analysis, PESTEL Analysis, VRIO analysis, Value Chain Analysis, BCG Matrix analysis, Ansoff Matrix analysis, and the Marketing Mix analysis, the recommendations and action plan are as follows:

• Facebook Inc should focus on making use of its strengths identified from the VRIO analysis to make the most of the opportunities identified from the PESTEL.
• Facebook Inc should enhance the value creating activities within its value chain.
• Facebook Inc should invest in its stars and cash cows, while getting rid of the dogs identified from the BCG Matrix analysis.
• To achieve its overall corporate and business level objectives, it should make use of the marketing mix tools to obtain desired results from its target market.

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Analyzing influence operations on Facebook: an exploratory study

• Exploratory Article
• Published: 29 May 2024

Cite this article

• Craig Douglas Albert   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3225-9386 1 ,
• Lance Y. Hunter 1 ,
• Samantha Mullaney 1 &
• Meagan Mays 1  

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Recently, there have been groundbreaking studies that seek to create unique cybersecurity datasets used to empirically test theories related to strategic cybersecurity. To date, however, this research has neglected cyber-enabled information operations (CEIO). With the remarkable amount of information operations being reported on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, there is a substantial gap in the literature regarding empirical studies on CEIO using cross-national datasets. This exploratory, descriptive study seeks to remedy this dilemma. To do so, this paper investigates the question, “What are the political and economic characteristics of states that are most likely to be targeted by CEIO over social media on Facebook?” To investigate, this exploratory, descriptive study utilizes a unique Information Operations Threat Report Dataset (2020) based on Facebook’s release of 2020 influence operations information that captures CEIO on its platform from 2017 to 2020. A descriptive data analysis reveals that mixed regimes (i.e., states that are partially authoritarian and democratic) and slightly wealthier states are more likely to be targeted in CEIO on Facebook. These exploratory findings provide useful insights into what types of states may be more susceptible to CEIO attacks on Facebook.

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Supreme Court to Hear Case About Facebook Data-Harvesting Incident

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The Supreme Court on June 10 agreed to look at a large shareholder lawsuit that claims Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. deceived investors regarding a data-harvesting controversy that involved Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm.

The Supreme Court’s eventual ruling in the case could have an effect on corporate disclosure standards going forward.

The case involves a private securities fraud-related class action arising out of the now-defunct UK-based Cambridge Analytica’s “wrongful acquisition and misuse of Facebook user data,” according to Facebook’s filing with the nation’s highest court.

Meta agreed in December 2022 to pay out $725 million to settle a class-action proceeding that said the company permitted third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, to gain access to as many as 87 million users’ personal information. The incident was made public in 2018.

Cambridge Analytica previously worked for then-candidate Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016, and had access to personal data from millions of Facebook accounts for purposes of targeting and profiling voters. The account holders didn’t consent and had their data harvested by means of an app.

The scandal led to government investigations and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was called to testify before Congress.

In 2019, Facebook agreed to pay $5 billion to resolve a U.S. Federal Trade Commission probe into its privacy practices and $100 million to settle a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission proceeding that alleged it misled investors about the misuse of their data.

At the same time, Meta is being investigated by the European Union for possible breaches of child safety rules on its Facebook and Instagram platforms.

The Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari, or review, in Facebook Inc. v. Amalgamated Bank, in an unsigned order.

No justices dissented, and the court didn’t explain its decision. At least four of the nine justices must vote to grant the petition for it to advance to the oral argument stage.

The Supreme Court will examine whether a federal appeals court erred in allowing the multibillion-dollar lawsuit to proceed premised on allegations that Facebook, as the company was known at the time, inflated share prices by failing to provide adequate disclosure that its user data would be misused.

The investors claim that the controversy contributed to two 2018 price drops that led to the company losing more than $200 billion in market capitalization.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled against Facebook in the case at hand in October 2023.

Facebook is asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit.

The federal district court threw out the plaintiffs’ claims three times but the Ninth Circuit revived the claims, which Facebook said in its petition “adopted extreme outlier positions.”

“The Ninth Circuit’s decision will light a beacon for class-action lawsuits that would be dismissed in any other circuit,” the petition stated.

The respondent, Amalgamated Bank, argued the circuit court decision was correct and the Supreme Court should reject the appeal.

“There is no circuit conflict,” the bank said in a brief.

The 9th Circuit “applies the same rule as the other circuits Facebook cites: a statement is misleading if it treats a material risk as hypothetical when the risk has already materialized.”

The Supreme Court is expected to hear Facebook Inc. v. Amalgamated Bank in its new term that begins in October.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court justices are currently deliberating two cases that deal with social media platforms.

The Supreme Court justices seemed skeptical of state arguments on March 18 that the federal government was wrong to communicate with social media platforms about public health issues during the recent pandemic.

At the same time, during oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri, the states argued that the federal government strong-armed social media companies into censoring disfavored views on important public issues such as side effects related to the COVID-19 vaccine and the government-imposed lockdowns. Applying this kind of pressure violates the First Amendment, the states argued.

Dr. Vivek Murthy is the U.S. surgeon general. The state of Missouri and other parties sued the federal government for alleged censorship by pressuring social media companies to suppress certain content.

On Feb. 26, Florida and Texas told the Supreme Court they should be allowed to regulate how social media platforms moderate content. During oral arguments, the justices seemed to be grasping for a new rule they could use to apply free speech principles to online discussions.

At stake is the right of individual Americans to freely express themselves online along with the right of social media platforms to make editorial decisions about the content they host. Both rights are protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The challenge to the Florida statute regulating social media is Moody v. NetChoice LLC; the challenge to the Texas law is NetChoice LLC v. Paxton.

Both states’ laws impose restrictions on deplatforming users and force platforms to explain their content moderation decisions, a mandate the platforms consider to be overly burdensome.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit struck down part of the Florida statute, finding that “with minor exceptions, the government can’t tell a private person or entity what to say or how to say it.”

Even the “biggest” platforms are “private actors whose rights the First Amendment protects … [and] their so-called content-moderation decisions constitute protected exercises of editorial judgment.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit took the opposite tack, finding the Texas law constitutional and rejecting the “idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say.”

Rulings in these two cases are expected by the end of June.

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Supreme court to hear facebook’s bid to toss shareholder suit over cambridge analytica scandal.

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The US Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a bid by Meta’s Facebook to scuttle a private securities fraud lawsuit accusing the social media platform of misleading investors in 2017 and 2018 about the misuse of its user data by the company and third parties .

The justices took up Facebook’s appeal of a lower court’s decision allowing a shareholder lawsuit brought in California and led by Amalgamated Bank to proceed. The court will hear the case in its next term, which begins in October.

The plaintiffs filed a class action lawsuit in 2018 after Facebook’s stock fell following media reports that the British political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had used improperly harvested Facebook user data in connection with Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016. The Cambridge Analytica breach exposed the data of as many as 87 million users.

The plaintiffs amended their lawsuit in 2018 to add a second stock decline that year on reports that Facebook had shared data with dozens of third parties without the express consent of users. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages.

The plaintiffs accused Facebook and top company officials of violating the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by making false and misleading statements in 2017 and 2018, including that user data could be compromised when the company was aware in 2015 that Cambridge Analytica had violated its privacy policies.

US District Judge Edward Davila dismissed the lawsuit by the shareholders in 2021 but the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling restored their claims.

“The problem is that Facebook represented the risk of improper access to or disclosure of Facebook user data as purely hypothetical when that exact risk had already transpired,” Judge Margaret McKeown wrote in the 9th Circuit decision.

Facebook urged the justices to take up its appeal, arguing that the 9th Circuit’s ruling would “force public companies to inform investors of past incidents that pose no known threat to the business.”

The Cambridge Analytica data breach fueled government investigations into Facebook’s privacy practices, lawsuits and a congressional hearing where Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by lawmakers .

Facebook paid more than $5 billion in penalties to US authorities over the Cambridge Analytica scandal and paid $725 million to settle a separate class action lawsuit by Facebook users.

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