Facebook worth $104BN?

paddyrg

chucky wrote: »

It's an advertising company's dream. Big corporations love it too.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/16/gm_drops_facebook_ads/

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

No, I do see your point about targeted advertising, but it still values me at $115 worth of advertising which companies are unlikely to pay anytime soon for some bloke who visits FB once every month or two under protest. And it turns out if ads are too targeted, people start finding them a bit creepy and respond negatively - it seems you're into diminishing returns after a certain point.

ruggedtoast

According to the FT the underwriters have had to step in and buy FB shares themselves to stop them falling below the issue price. Not a great start.

The company is rather over valued imo, as its most enthusiastic users dont have any money. Facebook is going to have invade privacy to such an extent now, to justify it'd ad targetting that most adult users won't be able to use it in a meaningful way to announce their lives.

Unless you have the most boring existence imaginable and no opinions on anything, each post you make now has to pass the safe for work filter.

The more friends you have the more careful you have to be about what you say or post.

chucky

Graham_Devon wrote: »

It matters HUGELY what they do now.

Whatever they do effects the users. With lower numbers of users, the site is worth less.

With 901 million users, that's a perfect target market right now for anyone. For someone with such a negative outlook on anything and everything, they don't seem to be doing too bad with users however much of your negativity you put on it.

DervProf

How much ?

Now I occasionally show my face on FB, and I have kind of noticed adverts on there. Having just purposely looked at the list of ads, I can honestly say I have never spent any money with these advertisers during the time I have been on FB, and I can't say that I ever will.

I predict that FB will go the way of many a web-based business, maybe not bust, but I think that the valuation is way OTT. The advertisers might think that they are getting VFM with their "targeted" audience, but I doubt that many people take much notice of the ads when posting or browsing the latest photos of their kids at the school sports day.

stonethrower

DervProf wrote: »

How much ?

Now I occasionally show my face on FB, and I have kind of noticed adverts on there. Having just purposely looked at the list of ads, I can honestly say I have never spent any money with these advertisers during the time I have been on FB, and I can't say that I ever will.

I predict that FB will go the way of many a web-based business, maybe not bust, but I think that the valuation is way OTT. The advertisers might think that they are getting VFM with their "targeted" audience, but I doubt that many people take much notice of the ads when posting or browsing the latest photos of their kids at the school sports day.

There is more than a bit of truth in what you say, General Motors have already stopped using facebook for advertising and I predict more will follow.

ruggedtoast

Facebook is proven to be very useful if you have a page advertising your company. I'm not sure there is much evidence yet that pushing your ads onto other people's pages is that successful, not at the price they'll have to charge to justify this IPO.

I know there is a lot of potential third stream revenue from FB tracking your entire identity across the web and selling that to advertisers as well, but it is rather vulnerable to people getting fed up with this.

Once someone has lost trust it has gone forever, and I think when FB becomes as intrusive as it now needs to be many adults will want to pull the plug completely.

vivatifosi

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Once someone has lost trust it has gone forever, and I think when FB becomes as intrusive as it now needs to be many adults will want to pull the plug completely.

I saw a US commentator on this the other day. They made the point that "if you pay for it, it's a service, if you don't, you're part of the product". Puts the whole monetisation thing into perspective.

Graham_Devon

chucky wrote: »

With 901 million users, that's a perfect target market right now for anyone. For someone with such a negative outlook on anything and everything, they don't seem to be doing too bad with users however much of your negativity you put on it.

I wouldn't say its negativity. It's business sense.

Have you bought shares yourself? if not, sounds like you should?

chucky

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I wouldn't say its negativity. It's business sense.

Have you bought shares yourself? if not, sounds like you should?

It's understanding a business model, you obviously don't.

If a person with the lack of business and financial knowledge like you is recommending someone to buy some shares that's a definite no no and bound to be a money loser.

gmang

In December 2005, ITV bought friends reunited for £120M. In August 2009 they offloaded it for £25M. In December 2011 it was worth £5M.

It pays not to get caught up in the latest internet fad!