What Would Happen if Facebook Would Cease to Exist?

Yesterday I watched a tv-show on the Austrian public television station ORF1. A viewer asked the question: “If Facebook would cease to exist, no-one would notice it, right?”. The invited “Facebook specialist” Jakob Steinschaden didn’t see a big problem if Facebook would just disappear.

So what would really happen if Facebook would just give up? I think that would create a mild worldwide economical crisis. Here’s why:

• Facebook’s turnover in 2010 was estimated at 2$ billion dollars
• Zynga’s turnover was 800$ million dollars in 2010
• Facebook alone has over 2’000 employees
• There are 103 preferred Facebook development agencies in the U.S
• over 400 new jobs during the last month were published on mashable.com related with social media
• Groupon’s revenue exceeded 760$ million dollars in 2010
• The group-buying market is estimated at 2.67 billion $ for 2011
• The market for social commerce is estimated at 30 billion $ for the year 2015
• There are 758’000’000 results on Google for the search term “social media blog” and 79’000’000 results for “social media monitoring”

According to Xing

• there are 5’947 social media marketing/advertising/ect. agencies
• 405 open jobs in social media
• over 10’000 people who work in a position or a firm that offers social media

According to LinkedIn

• 337’045 people are working at a social media company or in a position involving social media
• 15 currently open job positions as social media strategist only in Switzerland

Conclusion

If Facebook would just shut down ten-thousands of employees would lose their (well-) paid jobs, which could evolve in a minor world wide economical crisis. Or what do you think?