History:

Sam Walton's original Walton's Five and Dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas, now serving as the Walmart Visitor's Center Main article: History of Walmart Sam Walton, a businessman from Arkansas, began his retail career when he started work on June 3, 1940, at a J. C. Penney store in Des Moines, Iowa where he remained for 18 months. In 1945, he met Butler Brothers, a regional retailer that owned a chain of variety stores called Ben Franklin and that offered him one in Newport, Arkansas.[10] Walton was extremely successful in running the store in Newport, far exceeding expectations.[11] However, when the lease came up for renewal, Walton could neither come to agreement on the existing store's lease renewal nor find a new location in Newport. Instead, he opened a new Ben Franklin franchise in Bentonville, Arkansas, but called it "Walton's Five and Dime." There, he achieved higher sales volume by marking up slightly less than most competitors.[12] On July 2, 1962, Walton opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City store located at 719 Walnut Ave. in Rogers, Arkansas. The building is now occupied by a hardware store and an antique mall. Within five years, the company expanded to 24 stores across Arkansas and reached $12.6 million in sales.[13] In 1968, it opened its first stores outside Arkansas, in Sikeston, Missouri and Claremore, Oklahoma.

Wlamart revenue model:

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (branded as Wal-Mart before 2008 and stylized as Walmart after) (NYSE: WMT) is an American public multinational corporation that runs a chain of large discount department stores and a chain of warehouse stores. In 2010 it was the world's largest public corporation by revenue, according to the Forbes Global 2000 for that year. [6] The company was founded by Sam Walton in 1962, incorporated on October 31, 1969, and publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1972. Wal-Mart, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, is the largest majority private employer[7] and the largest grocery retailer in the United States. In 2009, it generated 51% of its US$258 billion sales in the U.S. from grocery business.[8] It also owns and operates the Sam's Club retail warehouses in North America. For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2009, Wal-Mart reported a net income of $13.6 billion[5] on $404 billion of revenue[2] (3.4% profit margin). For the fiscal year ending January 31, 2006, Wal-Mart's international operations accounted for about 20.1% of total sales Walmart has 8,500 stores in 15 countries, under 55 different names.[9] The company operates under its own name in the United States, including the 50 states. It also operates under its own name in Puerto Rico. It operates in Mexico as Walmex, in the United Kingdom as Asda, in Japan as Seiyu, and in India as Best Price. It has wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Canada. Walmart's investments outside North America have had mixed results: its operations in the United Kingdom, South America

and China are highly successful, while it was forced to pull out of Germany and South Korea when ventures there were unsuccessful.

Customer base:
Each week, about 100 million customers, nearly one-third of the U.S. population, visit Walmart's U.S. stores.[105] Walmart customers give low prices as the most important reason for shopping there, reflecting the "Low prices, always" advertising slogan that Wal-Mart used from 1962 until 2006.[106] The average US Wal-Mart customer's income is below the national average, and analysts recently estimated that more than one-fifth of them lack a bank account, twice the national rate.[107] A Wal-Mart financial report in 2006 also indicated that Wal-Mart customers are sensitive to higher utility costs and gas prices. [108] A poll indicated that after 2004 US Presidential Election 76% of voters who shopped at Wal-Mart once a week voted for George W. Bush, while only 23% supported senator John Kerry.[109] When measured against other similar retailers in the U.S., frequent WalMart shoppers were rated the most politically conservative.[110] In 2006, Wal-Mart took steps to expand its US customer base, announcing a modification in its US stores from a "one-size-fits-all" merchandising strategy to one designed to "reflect each of six demographic groups African-Americans, the affluent, emptynesters, Hispanics, suburbanites and rural residents."[111] Around six months later, it unveiled a new slogan: "Saving people money so they can live better lives". This reflects the three main groups into which Wal-Mart categorizes its 200 million customers: "brand aspirationals" (people with low incomes who are obsessed with names like KitchenAid), "price-sensitive affluents" (wealthier shoppers who love deals), and "value-price shoppers" (people who like low prices and cannot afford much more).[106] Wal-Mart has also made steps to appeal to more liberal customers, for example, by rejecting the American Family Association's recommendations and carrying the DVD Brokeback Mountain, a love story between two gay cowboys in Wyoming.[

Operating divisions:
Walmart Stores U.S. is the company's largest division, accounting for $258 billion, or 63.8% of total sales for financial year 2010.[ Walmart discount stores are discount department stores with an average store covering about 102,000 square feet. They carry general merchandise and a selection of groceries. Head quarter: Walmart Super centers are hypermarkets. These stock everything a Walmart discount store does, and also include a full-service supermarket, including meat and poultry, baked goods, delicatessen, frozen foods, dairy products, garden produce, and fresh seafood Neighborhood Markets by Walmart are grocery stores They are used to fill the gap between discount store and super centers, offering a variety of products, which include full lines of groceries, pharmaceuticals, health and beauty aids, photo developing services, and a limited selection of general merchandise.

Walmart opened "Supermercado de Walmart" locations to appeal to Hispanic communities in the United States. Marketside is a new chain of grocery stores opened in October 2008, the stores are said to be less than half the size of a conventional supermarket As of October 2010, there were four Marketside stores, all within the state of Arizona. Sam's Club is a chain of warehouse clubs which sell groceries and general merchandise, often in large quantities. Walmart's international operations currentlycomprise 4,263 stores and 660,000 workers in 15 countries outside the United States.There are wholly owned operations in Argentina, Brazil, Canada,and the UK. With 2.1 million employees worldwide. Walmart's international division sales were $100 billion, or 24.7% of total sales

Head quarter:
The world headquarters for the world's largest retail company is located on a generic commercial strip outside downtown Bentonville, Arkansas. Down the street (named Sam Walton Boulevard) is a Chick-fil-A, McDonalds, Sonic, Taco Bell, Subway, Radio Shack, and other familiar faces of the contemporary American Strip, including a Walmart Supercenter, across from the corporate HQ. Walmart not only is the largest retailer, it is usually listed as the largest company in the world, of any kind. It surpassed General Motors in 2001, and is usually close to ExxonMobil in revenue. The corporate offices are in Bentonville because the original Walton's Five and Dime where Sam Walton started up, is on the town square. While there are no visitor services at the corporate office, the Five and Dime site is operated as a public visitor's center for the company.

Competitors:
In North America, Wal-Mart's primary competition includes department stores like Kmart, Target, ShopKo and Meijer, Canada's Zellers, The Real Canadian Superstore and Giant Tiger, and Mexico's Comercial Mexicana and Soriana. Competitors of Wal-Mart's Sam's Club division are Costco, and the smaller BJ's Wholesale Club chain operating mainly in the eastern US. Wal-Mart's move into the grocery business in the late 1990s also set it against major supermarket chains in both the United States and Canada. Several smaller retailers, primarily dollar stores, such as Family Dollar and Dollar General, have been able to find a small niche market and compete successfully against Wal-Mart for home consumer sales

Facebook
History:
Facebook (stylized facebook) is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc.[1] As of January 2011, Facebook has more than 600 million active users.[5][6] Users may create a personal profile, add other users as friends, and exchange messages, including automatic notifications when they update their profile. Additionally, users may join common interest user groups, organized by workplace, school or college, or other characteristics. The name of the service stems from the colloquial name for the book given to students at the start of the academic year by university administrations in the United States to help students get to know each other better. Facebook allows anyone who declares themselves to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow computer science students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.[7] The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before opening to high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over.

Facebook revenue model:

Facebooks Revenue through Advertisement
Advertisements on Facebook form the main component of Facebooks revenue model considering the huge amount of traffic Facebook generates. Facebook provides two main types of advertisement:

Self-service ads: They are very simple. They consist of a title, a picture, a bit of text, and the user can click the link or like the advertisement. They are also known as Facebook Flyers. One doesnt need to be a really big company to promote their products,anyone can make these ads. Engagement ads: They are more complex in the sense that they let users interact with the advertisement. They allow for things like surveys that let users poll in their responses. As per your Profile, if you fall within a certain demographics concerning the poll, then the poll will automatically show up in your News Feed and you can either participate in it or overlook it.

Sponsored Groups and Text Announcements in Facebook Companies form their own sponsored groups and promote their products. E.g. Apple has its own sponsored group known as Apple Students where it lists the hottest items, prices, and even gives away free stuff.

Text announcements, which are more geared toward students who want to announce a party or event, are sold regularly for $9-$15 and guarantee a certain number of hits.

Facebooks Deal with Microsoft for Banner Ads

In August 2006, Facebook signed a three year deal with Microsoft worth $240 million to provide and sell contextual ads on their site in return for a revenue split. As of January 2010, the software giant has stopped selling display ads to Facebook. However, Microsoft has expanded the deal with Facebook that involves search and advertising. This entails integrating Microsoft Live Search on Facebook, which will include Microsofts search advertising, i.e. Bing will now be the default search engine on Facebook worldwide and not just in the US (since July 2008).

Facebook Credits Virtual Money from Facebook

Want to level up faster in your favourite Facebook game or buy a premium item yet not available to other players? Facebook Credits is a virtual currency that enables users to purchase gifts and virtual gifts in games and applications on Facebook. One U.S. dollar is equal to 10 Facebook credits. Facebook retains 30% of all revenue earned through Credits.

Facebook Gifts - Very Successful But Not Available Anymore

Ever wondered how you can send virtual gifts to your friends, relatives or your spouse, for a meagre price of $1 per gift? From February 2007 to August 2010, Facebook Gifts allowed users to select a small icon from novelty items and send it with a personalised message.

Facebook Beacon - A Failed Attempt

Facebook ran into resistance, when in November 2007 it rolled out Facebook Beacon, a now discontinued program that allowed third-party websites to publish stories about users, who purchased on their websites, to their Facebook friends news feeds.

Facebook Broadcasting Users Habits and Likes to Companies

When Facebook, in April 2010, announced a new feature that sends users profile information in bulk to companies such as Microsoft, Yelp and Pandora in essence, broadcasting their habits and likes across the Internet, many users were outraged by this move.

Facebook Sharing Users Data with Advertisers

Facebook was accused of breaching the confidentiality of customers personal information and sharing it with advertisers and raking in money. Facebook pointed out

that members intentionally share data, while advertisers aggregate data through searches and other online behaviours. In May 2010, Facebook held a mea culpa press conference where Mark Zuckerberg apologised and the company revamped its privacy controls amid negative user feedback.

Facebook-Apple Deal
In July 2010 Facebook made an agreement with Apple Inc. to give away 10 million free iTunes samplers to Facebook users.

Credit Cards by Facebook

Facebook signed a one-year deal with J.P. Morgan Chase to promote Chase credit cards on the social network. Facebook members will see banner ads inviting them to join a special Chase network and members of that group will then earn reward points for their actions, like paying their bills on time and other activities. The points can be converted to charity donation or redeemed for prizes. Even British supermarket giant, Tesco, has decided to sell Facebook prepaid credit cards.

Shop Now Shop Online via Facebook

Facebook has now included a shop now tab on brands fan pages. E.g. Pampers fan page allows users to make use of this tab to purchase diapers online through Facebook

Facebook users:
More than 500 million active users 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day Average user has 130 friends People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

Activities
There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)

Global reach Platform

More than 70 translations available on the site Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform

Mobile

There are more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.

Facebook servers:

Facebook has 30,000 servers supporting its operations. That number comes from Jeff Rothschild, the vice president of technology at Facebook, who discussed the

companys infrastructure in a presentation last week at UC San Diego (link via High Scalability). Today we have somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 servers, Rothschild said during the Q&A session following his talk, adding that the number will be different today than it was yesterday because Facebook is adding capacity on a daily