As the saying goes, "if you want to predict the future of business IT and Communications, look at the younger workforce to steer your thinking in the right direction". Indeed, the "Millenial" generation has shepherded in new social networking technologies that are changing how business gets done.
When Zuckerman founded Facebook from his dorm room at Harvard, he was thinking of a safe and scalable way to bring communities of friends and like minded people together, to share likes, dislikes, and provide an unobtrusive way to share and learn more about one another (by viewing photos, personal information, comments and updates).
I don't think that Zuckerman was thinking about fundamentaly changing the way that global corporations would collaborate with each other, share ideas, innovate together, and stay conneected to virtual teams. With the "Millenial" generation streaming into the workforce over the past 5 years, they've brought new perspectives and culture with them; a culture of openness and transparancy, a willingness to collaborate to solve problems as a team ("crowdsourcing"), and a comfort level with being connected 24x7 and accessible, virtually, whenever and wherever you are.
The popularity of Facebook has exploded in popularity as the place to connect with friends. As the pressures of a fast paced society have integrated our personal and business lives, so Facebook has followed suit; adding new business features (e.g. Facebook Connect) that allow facebook users to make facebook their "one stop shop" for personal and business.
In their 2007 book, Junco and Mastrodicasa expanded on the work of Howe and Strauss to include research-based information about the personality profiles of Millennials, especially as it relates to higher education. They conducted a large-sample (7,705) research study of college students. They found that Net.Generation college students were frequently in touch with their parents and they used technology at higher rates than people from other generations. In their survey, they found that 97% of students owned a computer, 94% owned a cell phone, and 56% owned an MP3 player (iPod, Zune, Sansa, etc.). They also found that students spoke with their parents an average of 1.5 times a day about a wide range of topics.[10] Other findings in the Junco and Mastrodicasa survey included that 76% of students used Instant messaging, and 92% of those reported multitasking while IMing, and 40% of students used television to get most of their news and 34% the Internet.
According to a study by Junco and Mastrodicasa, 69% of "Millenials" reported having a Facebook account, typically logging in twice a day. Since this time traffic has grown from approx 7M account holders to 100M.
Facebook's original rapid growth was in the U.S. but has expanded globally at a much faster clip. Facebook is wielding incredible bargaining power with advertisers having over 100M subscribers to date.
The end game? I'm guessing that we have a good chance that Facebook will replace Google and the "search engine paradigm" as the internet users "watering hole". The new "waterhole" being online communities of interest.
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