$500 million Facebook investment makes it more valuable than eBay
Goldman and Digital Sky Technologies have invested $500 million in Facebook, which values the company at $50 billion, and this in a company which has yet to offer shares on the stock markets.
The investment probably doubles Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder’s personal wealth to some $6 or $7 billion. It also values Facebook above the likes of eBay, Time Warner and Yahoo! Facebook has also according to Hitwise reports overtaken Google as the most visited site on the Internet.
Many companies are still figuring out how to make money out of Facebook, one thing is for sure though if you haven’t already it’s time to get your business on Facebook and start interacting with your customers… because that’s where they’re all hanging out.
Ellen says
3:36 pm on 03/01/2011
Maybe because I am an old fart, maybe it is just what I buy and sell but I’m just not convinced by Facebook. Certainly, I am not influenced to buy anything from what I’ve found there.
Internet influence wise, way out in front is Amazon Reviews, then posts on topic specific forums. If you are selling in a niche, that’s the way to go. Or you can try putting an enormous amt of effort into rising above all the noise on Facebook. It might work.
Warren says
5:56 pm on 03/01/2011
Frooition design Facebook stores to match your eBay shop. Why have a Facebook store when you can direct Facebook traffic to you own website?
Gerry007 says
9:38 pm on January 3rd, 2011
Correct thinking Warren
Jack says
10:46 pm on 03/01/2011
I signed up for a facebook store as soon as it was available. Not a sausage. Facebook is not a place where people go to trade, although if you have enough exposure ie so called friends you will undoubtedly benefit.
There are no doubt certain businesses where Facebook is of immense benefit – thinking here of pop music, minor celebrity type stuff, talking shop type stuff where there is some kind of spin off sale but it doesn’t follow that there is business to be had just by spending hours on facebook. You could well do a lot better by spending those hours on your website or existing shopping sites.
Leo says
12:14 am on 04/01/2011
How much is Myspace worth these days?! LOL I can’t be bothered putting my time into a 5 minute fashion fad
Old Hand says
6:33 pm on 04/01/2011
Goldman Sachs creating another bubble, very profitable business selling things of no value for loads of money. No risk either, when the **** hits the fan go and get a great big bailout from the governments, (that is plural, UK, US and most every one plugged in to the current banking fraud system). Bankers won’t forget to collect their multimillion bonuses whatever happens, paid for by the poor people (taxpayers – rich people don’t pay tax).
This Web 2.0 bubble is just a little bubble until the next big one in about a decade. More CO2 is really good for the environment (plants grow bigger and faster, deserts shrink etc) so all those carbon credits will be worthless and those who have invested in them (pensions, trusts, insurers, oil companies etc) will need bailouts.
Chris says
11:17 pm on 04/01/2011
I always wonder just what is the “Real” value of the various Companies involved in Computers, IT, Internet etc. I am not certain if you can remember back to the “Dot Com Bubble” when Companies that had never traded. That showed as their only assets a couple of PC’s and operated from somebodies spare bedroom were being valued at £5 or more million pounds. When I was an Accountant I on a couple of occassions was involved in valuing businesses that my employers were looking at with the idea of taking them over. It was easy. There was the premises, the stock, the “goodwill” and of course several years of Accounts showing such as Turnover, Profit and Loss. These were items that could be valued with some degree of accuracy. But these days the values quoted are often enormous. But just how justified are they in the long term. In fact do they have any basis in reality. Please don’t ask me because I have not got the foggiest but I suspect that nobody else does either. However over the years there have been many examples of Companies that have spent a great deal of time and effort often with very highly qualified advisers who have bought a business only to find that what they have bought is really not worth a hill of beans. I wonder if this could apply to the values of some of these businesses today certainly I would not be raiding my piggy-bank to buy any of them(my piggy bank will not stretch that far before anybody asks).
Old Hand says
12:02 am on January 5th, 2011
The value of such companies is the propaganda value. How many eyeballs they can thrust adverts in front of is the value most readily visible but there is a lot of subliminal/PSYOP value too. Kinda like a TV/Radio channel is worth how many viewers/listeners it has, a newspaper/magazine how many readers it has. Whether they have big studios/printing presses etc matters little, that’s hardware, easily replicable.
The PSYOP value is mostly paid for by governments, one way or another, and it’s the reason the BBC does Eastenders and quite a few other progs.
Another big reason for holding on to the eyeballs is so that they don’t look elsewhere, the bankers need to keep everyone on message so that they can keep on increasing their take of the pie. The scientific method is observation, anything else is merely a report, so the more you can be kept from observing the easier it is for the bankers. You’ve been lied to, almost everything that you have been told by media and institutions is wrong. obviously a lot of people know about it but the bankers have instituted a method of controlling democracy. Here’s one apparently ordinary London guy who has realised that things really don’t add up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk34w6luoUg
Chris says
11:38 pm on January 5th, 2011
There are several sorts of business. Old Hand is possibly right in part in regards to some of the large Computer Businesses. Certainly Propaganda comes into it but No 4 Leo is also correct Fashion does play a big part in it. The must have of 2010 may not be of any interest in 2011(it is probably far too early to ascertain what is going to be the “In Thing” of 2011. But I go back to the conventional way of valueing a Business. In the calculations was “Goodwill”. This did not represent solid assets but instead represented how successful the business had been in using the solid assets and other such factors as the Loyalty of its Customers. So for example in the Garage World it included such as the loyalty of the customers who had enjoyed years of good service and always came back to buy their New Cars and have them serviced etc. How can you really value a business that while it is Fashionable in 2010 could be “old hat” in 2011 because something else has taken the market by storm. Yes the figures are Propaganda and therefore probably meaningless but they will appear in the media and will be used to value the wealth of the Owners or Promoters but essentially meaningless.
Digby says
1:12 am on 05/01/2011
Goldman Sachs again.
Weren’t they part of the lot that created the biggest bubble in history the sub prime market ?
Also do you notice that Facebook no longer announce how many members they have. It was 300 million, 400 million now its stuck on 500 million.
But I have advertised on Facebook and made sales, its just that the ads end up costing too much.
Roseann Smith says
12:20 am on 13/01/2011
Goldman Sachs again. Weren’t they part of the lot that created the biggest bubble in history the sub prime market ? Also do you notice that Facebook no longer announce how many members they have. It was 300 million, 400 million now its stuck on 500 million. But I have advertised on Facebook and made sales, its just that the ads end up costing too much.