Most companies looking for new customers and fresh revenue move upmarket. Facebook (FB) is looking in the other direction.
This
fall, Facebook began a voluntary program at its Menlo Park, Calif.,
headquarters called 2G Tuesdays. Engineers, product developers and
anybody else who’s interested can use Facebook at reduced Internet
speeds approximating the patchy service users must contend with in
developing markets such as India and parts of Africa. Most Americans
pull their hair out when the Internet drops into low gear. Yet hundreds
of Facebookers try the slower speeds every week, and their experiences
have helped improve service for users with slow connections. “Images
take longer to load. The service is more unreliable,” says Facebook
engineering director Tom Alison. “It’s the best way to build empathy
with our users in those markets.”
Other
companies talk about connecting with consumers. But few do it as
convincingly as Facebook has done lately. And that’s just one reason the
social-media giant is the Yahoo Finance Company of the Year for 2015.
Some of the other reasons:
*
Facebook’s stock rose by more than 35% year-to-date through
mid-December, compared with an overall market that was flat. During the
last 12 months, the company has earned $2.8 billion on revenue of $15.9
billion, for a profit margin of 18% -- better than Microsoft (MSFT) and close to the enviable margins Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) earn.
*
The company’s market capitalization soared to roughly $300 billion this
year, making Facebook America's seventh-most valuable public company --
just behind Amazon (AMZN) but ahead of General Electric (GE) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).
*
Facebook’s 31-year-old CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, is in the midst of two
months of parental leave following the birth of his first child, a
prolonged departure that may be unique among Fortune 500 CEOs. The
company even accelerated its end-of-year product reviews to accommodate
his leave, according to Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.
* Zuckerberg also pledged this year to donate 99% of his wealth to charity
and other causes he considers worthy. While some critics called
Zuckerberg’s pledge self-serving, it remains a standout act of
generosity in an era characterized by self-indulgent 1 percenters and a
declining middle class.
Most of all, Facebook has grown from a bumptious startup—whose famous
motto used to be “move fast and break things” -- into a powerful
technology bellwether that seems to respect the humanity of its
employees and users both. And as the biggest American company run by a
millennial, Facebook is establishing corporate leadership for the next
generation. “We take our responsibility as an organization seriously,”
Sandberg told Yahoo Finance when we visited the company's headquarters.
“That means making work work for people.”
As Facebook has matured, meanwhile, it has modified the old motto, since
breaking things doesn’t sound like something a member of the corporate
firmament ought to endorse. “It’s still about ‘move fast,’” says Lori
Goler, Facebook’s human resources chief. “But it’s more about ‘move fast
and build responsibly.’”
Back in 2012, when Facebook went public, its future didn’t seem nearly
as rosy as it turned out to be. The thoroughly hyped IPO, you may
recall, was a fiasco marred by technical glitches and trading oddities.
Lawsuits ensued. The shares plunged right off the bat and within a
couple of months were trading at barely half the $38 listing price. Then
came fears that Facebook, essentially a desktop service, would miss the
mobile revolution and become irrelevant.
By: Rick Newman.
Apple Opens Secret Laboratory in Taiwan to Develop New Screens.
The Apple building in Longtan has at least 50 engineers and other workers creating new screens for devices including iPhones and iPads, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details aren’t public. Apple has recruited from local display maker AU Optronics Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., which used to own the building, the people said.
Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple in Cupertino, California, declined to comment.
Apple began operating the lab this year as it aims to make products thinner, lighter, brighter and more energy-efficient. Engineers are developing more-advanced versions of the liquid-crystal displays currently used in iPhones, iPads and Mac personal computers, the people said. Apple also is keen to move to organic light-emitting diodes, which are even thinner and don’t require a backlight, they said.
Making its iPhones and iPads slimmer and longer-lasting with each generation has been a hallmark of Apple, helping drive $178 billion in annual sales from the two product categories.
Shares of AU Optronics surged 7 percent, the most in four months, in Taipei and Innolux jumped 2.6 percent. Japan Display dropped 3.9 percent in Tokyo to the lowest in more than two months, and Sharp fell 1.6 percent.
Apple continues looking for engineers to work at its display panel facilities, according to job postings on LinkedIn Corp.’s website.
Tucked in a corner of Longtan Science Park, between a forest and the building site for a new biotechnology factory, the structure shows no outward indications of belonging to the world’s most valuable company. Fifty kilometers (31 miles) from downtown Taipei and within an hour’s drive of the Foxconn headquarters, the white-tiled factory displays no corporate signage, a stark contrast to neighboring plants emblazoned with 3-foot-tall logos for Leotek Electronics Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and AU Optronics.
Apple does the bulk of its research at its headquarters in Cupertino and outsources the manufacturing of almost all devices and components to suppliers such as Foxconn Technology Group and Japan Display. The iPhone maker also employs scientists and engineers globally to develop materials and manufacturing technologies.
Apple continues looking for engineers to work at its display panel facilities, according to job postings on LinkedIn Corp.’s website.
Tucked in a corner of Longtan Science Park, between a forest and the building site for a new biotechnology factory, the structure shows no outward indications of belonging to the world’s most valuable company. Fifty kilometers (31 miles) from downtown Taipei and within an hour’s drive of the Foxconn headquarters, the white-tiled factory displays no corporate signage, a stark contrast to neighboring plants emblazoned with 3-foot-tall logos for Leotek Electronics Corp., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and AU Optronics.
By: Tim Culpan.
Review: Emerging Market Formulations & Research Unit, Flagship Records.
For The #FacebookTeam