That Facebook has an astonishing number of people -- nearly 41 percent of the network's total audience -- cornering themselves off into nooks and crannies isn't surprising. Groups have long been a convenient way to converse in closed circles. Rather, the unexpected thing here is that Facebook is choosing to just now draw attention to Groups, a product that it rarely talks about publicly, and one that's not particularly representative of Facebook's new mantra of being a mobile-first company.
Speculation, kicked off by a Bloomberg profile of Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, would have it that the company is readying the release of some type of standalone mobile application for group communication. Indeed, plenty of clues point in that direction. But Facebook isn't ready to commit to that vision -- at least publicly.
"I don't think we've necessarily made any plans, one way or another, around breaking it off as its own individual experience," Facebook Groups product manager Jimmy Chen told CNET. "I think it's a core use case that Facebook, the company, should be really good at. The tactics for how we do that are still up in the air."
And, yet, Facebook is being oddly outspoken about Groups, the private social network that predates the once-trendy Path and other mobile apps like Everyme and Couple, which seem destined for future obscurity.
Not Groups. During Facebook's most recent earnings call, Zuckerberg boasted uncharacteristically about the success of Groups, even calling it a "core product."
The company never reveals anything it doesn't want you to know, nor does it offer up stats about its singular products, save for purchases like Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook, for instance, still hasn't shared how many people use Messenger, a much more talked about product with its own standalone app.
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