Facebook - Going Public a Good Idea?

[george__]

Check this out!

a) http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1232438--facebook-shares-tumble-on-facebook-s-first-public-quarter
b) http://www.forbes.com/sites/connieguglielmo/2012/07/26/facebook-sales-profit-meet-analysts-estimates-in-first-ever-earnings-report/
c) http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/367278/20120726/facebook-earnings-zyna-plunge-draw-something-farmville.htm
d) http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/367278/20120726/facebook-earnings-zyna-plunge-draw-something-farmville.htm

"Facebook said it had a net loss of $157 million in the quarter, ended June 30. It now has 3,976 employees, up from 2,661 in the first half of 2011."
"The company said it lost $157 million (U.S.) compared with a year-earlier profit of $240 million on $1.3 billion in stock-based compensation and other rising costs."
"Farmville" Maker Lashes Out At Social Media [Facebook] Giant Over Poor Figures"

Social media "craze" might be slowing dying... Poor facebook

[rabbit]

If accurate, maybe uckerberg should take business more seriously, instead of trying too hard to show how (un)hip he is.

[Adevictus]

Facebook is dying out, message boards are coming in...

If they made some sort of hybrid between a message board and social media, it would be the next big thing.

[Forhad]

I have stopped using Facebook, now i am using Google plus. Facebook paid a huge amount to Google for coping some Google plus feature.

[ichpen]

Facebook is not dying but this certainly shows how overrated it was during the IPO. They are failing to monetize on advertising and more importantly mobile advertising which presumably is how folks do most of their facebook activities. It's still the de facto social platform and is still lightyears ahead of Google's half arsed efforts with Plus.

[Mulder and Scully]

If you ignore the IPO fiasco and any personal feelings about Facebook, you can look back at interviews with Zuckerberg from about 12-18 months ago right before the rumours of Facebook going public made the rounds. The whole reason of Facebook going public was because Facebooks wants to be the internet. Not literally of course, but the company wants to be the de facto place where people read the news, listen to music and share stuff. People are doing it now in a limited way where some sites will let you log in with your Facebook credentials, checking in to places and generally how your stream shows everything that you're doing that aren't games like reading the news or participating on other sites. In order to really become a bigger, more ingrained part of the internet, Facebook needs to be transparent and for that the company needs to be public so federal regulators can keep an eye on them. Money was a (close) secondary thing with the IPO. But Zuckerberg has said that he wants Facebook to be the internet. Whether or not this will really happen or be accepted by people is another thing.

[movieman]

It was an excellent idea for all the people with stock options. Buying the shares was the bad idea.

[george__]

He dropped in his millionaire rank too recently.
I'm thinking Facebook might become like Myspace (remember MySpace) or Yahoo.

Yahoo was super popular in the early 2000s remember? They had geocities (? the free web hosting service thing), chat and more. Now they aren't too popular.

[microwave]

Facebook is not dying but this certainly shows how overrated it was during the IPO. They are failing to monetize on advertising and more importantly mobile advertising which presumably is how folks do most of their facebook activities. It's still the de facto social platform and is still lightyears ahead of Google's half arsed efforts with Plus.


Facebook has grown world wide overall but the user base has been on the decline in north America and Europe for a while now. The site has begun its journey to irrelevance and while it'll be a while before its dead if they can't monetize things soon things are going to get bad fast for everyone as user base drop excellerates.

[fatal15]

I don't think the drop in popularity is an issue, it how Facebook can make money off their users especially when most ppl use the FB by smartphone.

[george__]

I don't think the drop in popularity is an issue, it how Facebook can make money off their users especially when most ppl use the FB by smartphone.

They confirmed no facebook phone recently too...

Their user base hasn't grown much either... http://rt.com/business/news/facebook-shares-drop-report-434/
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2011/06/15/more-measurement-firms-show-stronger-may-us-facebook-growth-following-slower-start-to-2011/
^^ Even has graphs!

They might very well become the next myspace / yahoo. But it seems Facebook has very little China users, so even if USA users drop, China might help. But I think FB is banned?

[craftsman]

Depends on your point of view...

Insiders view-

Great time for it!
* the outsiders (the public and analysis) have been asking for it for years!
* perception is that it's the next big thing
* no-one is thinking about how you can make money... only that your have 900 million users
* companies are fighting to get on board and put your symbol on everything they advertise
* talk that the IPO will be like the internet IPOs of the past -> goes up, up, and up!
* Privacy concerns are overshadowed by the hype!
* 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook everyday adds to the hype!

Public "Joe investor" view -

Not so good
* perception is that it's the next big thing but adoption rate slowing
* companies are fighting to get on board and put your symbol on everything they advertise but some companies (like GM) are quietly questioning the effectiveness.
* talk that the IPO will be like the internet IPOs of the past -> goes up, up, and up! The hype was deafening
* no-one is thinking about how you can make money... only that your have 900 million unconfirmed and maybe not unique users
* 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook everyday adds to the hype! as well as the cost of running Facebook as those photos need to be stored and bandwidth paid for!

[66xx66]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57433719-93/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-facebook-ipo-faq/

Why does Facebook want to go public now?
Actually, Facebook has to go public. The company's reluctance to go public changed a few years ago when it realized it was on pace to exceed 500 shareholders, which would automatically trigger a requirement that it start publicly releasing financial details.




Three reasons Facebook has to go public
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57368449-93/three-reasons-facebook-has-to-go-public/

[george__]

Cool info.
Facebook annoys me a bit, to be honest. People post such stupid things at time ><

[Magoomba]

They really need to come out with a better Facebook app for iOS (especially iPad where one doesn't exist).
On mobile devices it will be interesting if users will be willing to put up with advertising.

[coolegg]

I can't put up with fb on my smartphone. The loading time is so slow. I hope this is the beginning of the end for fb.

[Dwight10]

I think facebook is not dying. But if its true then the facebook authority should take strong strategy to develop their business.

[Blackmajik]

Just history repeating itself and after using the internet for more than 17 years, I have seen many different services "die" because end users moved on. MSN messenger, Yahoo, MySpace, ICQ, etc were once popular but have seen better days because users just followed each other. For me, it isn't a question of if FB will join the ranks of the dying services but a question of when.

[george__]

Just history repeating itself and after using the internet for more than 17 years, I have seen many different services "die" because end users moved on. MSN messenger, Yahoo, MySpace, ICQ, etc were once popular but have seen better days because users just followed each other. For me, it isn't a question of if FB will join the ranks of the dying services but a question of when.

But if they can adapt and change, they might survive... I think they need to develop some method to get people to join facebook somehow. And isn't their stream of income mostly from ads? If they can find some mother method it might be helpful.

[Blackmajik]

But if they can adapt and change, they might survive... I think they need to develop some method to get people to join facebook somehow. And isn't their stream of income mostly from ads? If they can find some mother method it might be helpful.

Well for me, people go where their friends, family, co-workers, etc go. No point sticking with a service where a majority of people you know are on another service. Not saying FB will die but if a good wave of people start enough noise and rave about say, Google+ and it starts a trend, people might start to migrate there. Who knows what will happen in the future but if FB becomes "less popular" in the future I wouldn't be surprised at all. Facebook doesn't need to develop a method to convince people to join rather rely on current users to spread the word.