In order for Facebook (FB 1.63%) to grow its business and live up to the high expectations many investors have for the company, it needs to expand its product offerings. We saw this in the past with Google (GOOG 2.22%), a company which started with and is still mainly known for its search platform. While most users would say Google search is good and they would still use it today, the world of search was highly competitive and fragmented when the company first hit the scene. It developed products like Gmail to expand its user base. The same can be said for Facebook: Unless the company finds a way to integrate other products and services into its users' lives, it may not last the test of time. In the video below, Fool contributor Matt Thalman breaks it down for investors.
Facebook Needs to Take a Page Out of Google's Playbook
By Matt Thalman – May 17, 2013 at 9:00PM
NASDAQ: GOOGL
Alphabet
Market Cap
$3.4T
Today's Change
(-2.22%) $6.29
Current Price
$277.43
Price as of November 4, 2025 at 3:59 PM ET
Facebook and Google of 10 years ago have a lot in common.
About the Author
Matt first became interested in the stock market while attending West Virginia University. A finance professor told a story about how a few thousand dollars invested in Mylan Pharmaceutical's stock in the 1970's had turned a number of employees, some even working as janitors at the company, into millionaires after holding onto their shares for more than 30 years. The seed of investing in quality stocks and holding those positions for a very long time was planted. After completing his MBA and working in the hospitality industry in Las Vegas for a number of years, Matt joined the Fool as a contributor in 2011. Follow his stock picks on CAPS at TMFMT.
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