FaceBook: When does it beome funny money ?

[Lamplighter]

NYTimes
January 2, 2011, 11:31 pm Venture Capital
Goldman Invests in Facebook at $50 Billion Valuation
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and EVELYN M. RUSLI
Tony Avelar/Bloomberg News

The deal could double the personal fortune of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder.
Facebook, the popular social networking site, has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs
and a Russian investor in a deal that values the company at $50 billion,
according to people involved in the transaction.

The deal makes Facebook now worth more than companies like eBay, Yahoo and Time Warner.

I've copied a Blog comment because I don't begin to understand this stuff:

Smells like the year 2000 all over again.
Do you remember Napster and the other Internet bubble companies?
What are they worth now?
Remember when MySpace was a big deal? Facebook is a passing fad
with no product or any true ground breaking technology.
$50 billion hype = hold on to your wallets.

Is this $50B going to put anyone to work that's not already working ?

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

Is this $50B going to put anyone to work that's not already working ?

It will if they expand operations. It may also allow them to branch out in to other business endeavors at a faster rate if they are so inclined. I do recall a recent announcement by Zuckerberg that they were going to be expanding into a number of new technologies so this may speed things up. Sounds good to me. More power to him.

[DanaC]

I'm with the commenters. This is another bubble about to burst.

He's talking about expanding into areas that are already starting to show that standard business models don't work.

[classicman]

A LETTER FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG

MENLO PARK, Calif. (The Borowitz Report)—After Facebook’s shares plummeted in after-hours trading today,
Facebook C.E.O. Mark Zuckerberg issued the following personal letter to all nine hundred million Facebook users.

Dear Facebook user:

Hey it’s Mark.

It seems like just yesterday that Facebook had its historic I.P.O. and, thanks to you, my net worth soared to a
staggering $20 billion. What an awesome day that was for both of us.

Today was a different kind of day. Facebook shares are plunging because the geniuses on Wall Street expect us to,
and I quote, “make money.” That’s why your Facebook friend Mark needs your help.

Facebook only makes money if people click on its ads. Do you know what Facebook ads are? They’re those things
on your Facebook page that you have never clicked on even once.

But at Facebook we’re looking to change that. After doing extensive market research, we learned that there is one time
when people actually do click on Facebook ads: when they’re drunk. This is the same business model that iTunes is based on.
I’m sure a few of you have had the experience of using Facebook late at night, only to wake up and find that you’ve gotten
seven auto-insurance quotes or enrolled as a criminal-justice major at the University of Phoenix.

Why am I sharing this information with you? Simple. If you want to save Facebook—and I know that you do—
I need you to start drinking now.

At Facebook headquarters, we like to have all-night coding parties where we get shitfaced and write algorithms
and other computer stuff you wouldn’t understand. I want you to do the same thing, except instead of coding,
I want you to click on random ads for Ancestry.com and Christian Mingle, over and over and over again.
You don’t even have to buy anything—just keep clicking. And drinking.

Now, you might be asking yourself, “Why do I have to help Mark out? Isn’t Facebook’s stock price his problem?”
Well, in a sense, yes. But maybe this is a good time to remind you that I have cached all of those photos you
posted of yourself doing Jägerbomb jello shots at that Tri Delt party in 2007. And I’ll bet your future employers
would love to take a peek at them.

Kthxbye

Mark

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