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Facebook use costing companies billions?
'I'm just going to check my profile... '

By Reuters

Published: Tuesday 21 August 2007

Workers surfing the social networking site Facebook - which allows friends to keep in touch, post photos and monitor one another's moods and movements - could be costing their employers billions of dollars in lost productivity, according to an analysis by an internet security firm.

The popularity of Facebook is spreading rapidly, with reports of more than 100 new users signing up every hour.

Internet security company SurfControl looked at the phenomenon and found Australian workers who keep a close watch on their Facebook profile page were cumulatively costing their employers up to AU$5bn ($4bn) per year.

SurfControl chairman Richard Cullen told Australian radio: "People love being there and telling people what they are doing right now, what their thoughts are right at this second.

"It's so interactive that people just get addicted to watching their Facebook groups all the time."

Cullen said his findings were based on a typical Facebook user, earning an average wage, spending an hour per day online. He then calculated the cost to companies, if one person in every organisation spent an hour on Facebook instead of working.

He added: "We got the extraordinary figure of AU$5bn."

Cullen said banning Facebook from work computers was not necessarily the best way to combat the wasting of time by employees because the site encourages socialising which in turn makes people happier to work longer hours.