Till recently, I was not on Facebook. Many of you would wonder how I managed to survive for ages without being a part of the world's one of the most popular social networking site? I won't give any details about why I avoided Facebook for a long time, instead I would like to discuss what has hooked me to Facebook and what makes the site such a success.

Chain letter strategy
How has Facebook managed to proliferate so rapidly? If you have ever noticed, Facebook always encourages you to invite new friends to the network. It offers to extract your contact list from various emailing sites and send invites to them on your behalf. The site also keeps suggesting you names of users who could possibly be your friend or acquaintance. Do you know what is this business strategy called? Yeah, it's a form of pyramid sales network or a chain letter, where a person joining the network is supposed to bring in more members. Though many other networking site use the pyramid sales strategy, Facebook does it in a very effective and subtle way.

Twitter with more features
Though Facebook arrived lot earlier than Twitter, it won't be wrong to say that it is a more complex and feature-rich version of Twitter, which is now being dubbed by the traditional media as the most happening thing on the Web2.0, evolving into Web3.0. In Twitter one has to use various independent websites providing services linked to Twitter, say TwitPic that allows Twitter users to post images.
Who won't like to use a more advanced Twitter where one gets all the desired features on the site?

Facebook applications
How does Facebook manage to provide all the services on its own site? Answer is applications. Facebook was wise enough to let others use the popular networking site to host their own services--games, quizzes, interactives, etc. These applications have enabled Facebook to provide a host of services that no single entity can ever manage. Above all, it doesn't have to worry about those applications as all of them are completely taken care by their developers.

There are several applications that increase the traffic on Facebook. Games such as FarmVille, MafiaWars, Scrable and India-made Lexulous have hundreds of Facebook actually hooked to them. Like Facebook, most applications on the site encourgae users to introduce the application to others and also incentivize spreading word about the application, it proliferates pretty fast.

Unobtrusive advertisements
Any venture can be a success only if it can generate significant revenues to sustain itself. Unlike Twitter, Facebook has been able to seamlessly integrate advertising. And contrary to Google's Orkut, Facebook ads are not a banner or ad box that serves no other purpose than an eyesore. They are, like the website, interactive, which makes them more acceptable by users.

Highly mobile
Making Facebook accessible from the most basic of cellphone can be credited for some of its success. Imagine the reach that opens up when it allows users to send and receive updates using mobile text messages. No Internet, no high-end cellphone required.