Facebook & Triadic Closure After Purchasing Instagram & WhatsApp
https://interactivecares-courses.com/facebook-success-pschyology-triadic/
It is well known that Facebook has benefited from the concept of triadic closure over the years. Triadic closure basically states that when a given person has ties to two other people, it is likely that those two people will end up connecting as well. Facebook has used their knowledge of this concept to suggest friends to users for many years now. It was not until I read this article that I understood one way that Facebook furthered themselves with regard to triadic closure.
Facebook took things a step further when they purchased Instagram and WhatsApp. Instagram and WhatsApp are both social applications that users can connect with one another on. Purchasing these companies was a big deal for Facebook because it gave them a massive amount of new networks to work with. Facebook now had more knowledge of networks of people throughout the world which gave them more possibilities to suggest accurate friend possibilities. I imagine that the purchase of Instagram gave Facebook a lot of information on younger generation’s networks as well. I believe this because many younger generations use Instagram more than they use Facebook despite still having a Facebook account. When Facebook got access to Instagram’s network information I imagine that it allowed them to make more accurate suggestions for the younger generations than it could before having Instagram’s information. WhatsApp is an application that allows users to communicate via WIFI, which is important to know because it allows users to speak internationally as long as they have WIFI available to them. This likely advanced Facebook’s ability to make quality suggestions to users who have connections all over the world. More generally, it is likely that Facebook simplified things and suggested friends simply because they were connected on one of the other applications. Overall, Facebook’s original idea of using triadic closure to suggest friends only blossomed when they got their hands on Instagram and WhatsApp.