Javier Olivan has a problem. In early 2010, his Facebook growth team was doing the messaging. Yes, this sounds counterintuitive and odd, but growth was (and still is) the driving force behind the company, and this team has a comprehensive mandate. Anything that gets people to Facebook or keeps them on Facebook is fair game. The news qualifies because, as Olivan once put it, "it's a touch on Facebook." If someone messages you and you're off-duty, you'll be motivated to sign up.
However, the problem found with the company's relentless use of data and analytics is that the news is buried within the Facebook app. When users get a message, they won't know because the message will disappear amidst the frenzy of other things Facebook is worried about. "Could be the 17th announcement," he said during my interview in March 2019. So Olivan and his team decided: "It would be better to take the messaging experience from the app and make it our own."
This goes against conventional wisdom to make things easier for consumers. Olivan's plan is a form of blackmail: if you want to message, heavy boogie — unless you've downloaded the company's new messaging platform. "For a short time, users hated it because you suddenly had to install another app," he told me. They finally did. And not only is the news growing, but the company is finally turning it into a separate social service with a billion users. "The data says it's the right thing to do," he told me. "We did it with the best intentions, and now Messenger is a very successful app."
The win has propelled the 44-year-old to increasingly higher positions at the company, culminating this week with becoming Meta's new chief operating officer and chief assistant to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. But the increase seems almost a footnote to the impending departure of chief operating officer Cheryl Sandberg, the only person to hold the post. Sandberg distinctively left Facebook, with every element of the message meticulously choreographed.
He prepared a 1,500-word post loaded with love confessions from past and current Facebook, with Zuckerberg citing the parade as "most appropriate." He gives interviews to selected media organizations. And as a result of his impending departure – he will relinquish his badge in the fall but remain on the board – he has produced dozens of hot images and thoughts, many laden with severe judgments of his tenure. (This is what I wrote.)
