it's science: facebook knows you better than your friends

It's Science:Facebook KnowsYou Better Than

Your FriendsImage Source: LinkedIn

If you've liked more than 70 items onFacebook, it knows you better than

your friends.

Image Source: Flickr/Erik Cleves Kritensen

150 likes and it knows you better thanyour family.

Image Source: Flickr/James Thompson

300 likesand it knowsyou betterthan yourspouse.

Image Source: Flickr/Brian Tomlinson

That's according to a recentstudy from researchers atUniversity of Cambridgeand Stanford University.

Source: PNAS

When Facebook announcedits 1 billionth user in 2012 ...

When Facebook announcedits 1 billionth user in 2012 ...

It also said it had accumulatedover 1.13 trillion likes.

Source: Facebook

Keep in mind likes have onlybeen around since 2009,so the average is likely

even higher today.

Suffice it to say, Facebookprobably knows your

personality better thananyone in the world.

So, what can Facebookdo with all its data?

It can show you moreinteresting items in

your News Feed.

It can usethe datato targetadvertisements.

And ad targeting is improving.

Average ad revenue per userincreased 27% last quarterAd prices increased 220%

But Facebook's personalitydata coupled with its social

graph could enable Facebookto enter other verticals.

It could license its data toresearchers and

organizations that requirepeople to submit

personality profiles.

Twitter generated over $100million from licensing its

data last year.

And Facebook has five-timesas many users.

Facebook could create arecruiting platform to

connect users with jobs thatsuit their personality.

LinkedIn generated$1.3 billion from its

Talent Solutionsproduct last year.

And its users are hardlyengaged compared

to Facebook.

Facebook could even builda dating app to take

advantage of itspersonality data and

social graph.

The online dating industrygenerated $2.2 billion in the

U.S. alone last year.

Source: Washington Post

Few other companies canboast personality profiles as

accurate as Facebook's.

Search history isanother goodindicator ofpersonality.

As ispurchasehistory.

Facebook isworking toenter both ofthose markets.

And its reach is aswide as any company

in the world.

So, it knows more aboutmore people than anyone

in the world.

And it understands youbetter every day.

The researchers believe thatincreasing the number of

likes beyond what wasavailable in the study couldfurther boost the accuracyof their personality model.

So, click thatFacebook like

button!

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