About Facebook charge ,”Facebook is free,” says the company. The users pay with their data and their attention. Money earned by the company especially advertising: While the user to write status messages, view photos, browse the profiles of their friends, Facebook can fill their ad spaces. The business model works. Did in the first half year sales doubled to $ 1.6 billion, wrote the “Wall Street Journal.”

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg at F8 conference

When presenting technology giant American news, they rarely exercise in humility. Facebook is no exception. The online network on Thursday promised that users will be able to represent “the story of her life” on the platform. Facebook wants to be deeply anchored in the lives of its users – and thereby meet the expectations of investors who have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the platform.

The recently introduced changes to ensure that users log no longer on Facebook, “Time Line” is a time bar in the user profile with which the user stations may pose in her life – and changed the profile pages into interactive CVs. Snapshots from his childhood and the wedding video can emerge as favorite recipes or jogging routes completed. All this adds up to a digital diary. “To tell you the whole story of his life on a single page,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the presentation at the Facebook F8 conference in San Francisco. “We want to make Timeline a place where you are proud to call him your home.”

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“If the user actually create a life archive, they are tied much more closely to the platform,” says Armin Rott of the Hamburg Media School. “Lock in” the economists call. One is locked – especially since you can transfer the data into Facebook only hard on other platforms. Such is also the American journalism professor and blogger Jeff Jarvis, a higher hurdle to quit Facebook: “You lose your life.” But it’s not just about the past. Facebook wants to encourage its visitors to have more to talk about their everyday lives – in real time. What would be more suitable than music, movies and games? Dozens of media companies to link up to the online network, including famous names like Spotify and Netflix, the “Wall Street Journal” and the “Washington Post”. They should bring the conversation to the user in motion. An example: Who the (in Germany because of disputes with the Gema not yet available) music service Spotify can hear a song that can tell his friends about a new ticker on the Facebook page. If anyone finds the music well, he joins in and buys the piece itself, perhaps. This principle will Facebook be transferred to other areas of life: books, cooking, sports and fashion. Thus the platform to a huge control room for media content is in the network.

Also opens up new ways to earn money with 750 million users. One is through advertising: The better the company knows the individual, the more expensive it can sell the contact on the advertising industry. “The effects are often overestimated,” says media economist Rott. The second is for Facebook to earn its partners. If users discover about Facebook music service for a fee and sign up there, money goes to the online network.

The innovations should be adopted, such as Facebook imagine that creates a data collection unprecedented. The company must adapt to a new privacy debate. Many users have announced to delete their profile, because they are the new features of Facebook are creepy. The great exodus is likely but inevitable. “I suppose, Facebook can not afford to go a few users, especially new ones arrive that want to have this feature,” suggested the Facebook expert Annette Schwindt. For German users the renewal will not be immediately visible. “Timeline does not start immediately,” said Facebook spokeswoman Tina Kulow. The offer will be filled in the next few weeks of life.