Not all of us are comfortable mixing our social lives and our work lives, which is why Facebook has been working on a new version of its social network that will allow users to create a second profile specifically for their work life. Despite how it sounds, Facebook at Work isn’t supposed to be a LinkedIn competitor, as it focuses more on team building and the social aspects of work, whereas LinkedIn is all about collaborating across organizations. Facebook has been testing the new social network for almost a year in order to get all the new features working, and the final product will be launching within the next few months.
Facebook at Work, Facebook’s professional version of its social network, is expected to launch in the coming months, after spending a year in tests, a company executive said. The new service, geared towards workplace collaboration, is nearly identical to its ubiquitous social network, with a scrolling newsfeed, “likes” and a chat service. Julien Codorniou, director of global platform partnerships at Facebook, said almost everything on Facebook at Work is the same as the regular Facebook social network, with some minor exceptions. “You cannot play Candy Crush on Facebook at Work,” he told Reuters. “I would say 95 per cent of what we developed for Facebook is also adopted for Facebook at Work.” However, Facebook at Work users will maintain special profiles that are distinct from their existing Facebook profiles. The company is also developing exclusive products for Facebook at Work, including security tools, Codorniou said. Facebook started beta-testing the service in January and has kept it as a free, “invite-only” service for companies so far. The service will be open to all companies once launched and Facebook plans to charge “a few dollars per month per user” for premium services such as analytics and customer support.
