

Facebook Fires Finance Chief and Offers Some Big Numbers - frisco
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/facebook-fires-finance-chief-and-offers-some-numbers/

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kennyroo
I underestimated Facebook for too long. Then two weeks ago I was in the US
Airways lounge between flights in the Charlotte, NC airport (which has
amazingly fast free WiFi, BTW) and noticed that HALF of the people who were
using the Internet were on Facebook. Granted, an airport lounge is going to
pull a certain sub-set of society, but still... Facebook is every bit the
social phenomenon that eBay and Yahoo were in the past. I don't know how you
put a dollar value on it, but that kind of reach has real value.

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brandonkm
This seems to be a microcosm of the problem Facebook is facing. Everyone is on
it, yet significant (public company esque) profits have yet to materialize. It
is definitely a social phenomenon, but unlike eBay and Yahoo monetizing the
service is proving to be difficult at very large scales.

Theres also the problem of advertising on a social networking site. If we
could observe everyone in that US Airways lounge's average Facebook session,
how many ads would we see people click on out of that group? How many people
brought something or signed up for something after clicking those ads?
Advertising dynamics on a social networking site are fundamentally different.
A question I always ask people when the topic of Facebook comes up is "have
you ever clicked an ad on there? I don't think I have" and the answer is
always some variation of "actually, now that I think about it I haven't". I'm
not going to extrapolate too much on this given my sample size, but if this is
the standard response to this question everywhere, then Facebook has a serious
problem (despite its phenomenon status).

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catz
It may be true that it is different - but it can be as profitable as other
(search companies).

Remember that Facebook basically have all your personal data with which it can
select products for you to buy.

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chime
While I'm pretty blasé about Facebook from a user's point of view, I am quite
interested to know where they will go with an IPO. Google expanded into so
many fields other than search after their IPO, I wonder which territories
would Facebook venture into. Currently, other than a few LAMP/memcache/API
stuff, Facebook isn't doing much outside of the Facebook social-networking
world. Google ended up with a phone and transit. Will there be a Facebook
channel or matchmaking?

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abossy
The potential opportunities Facebook has are TREMENDOUS. I feel like the
potential is there, but it's is barely touched, and I'm not sure why.

Facebook's value is in moving toward mobile. They are ubiquitous enough where
the chances of having Facebook in your local area is very high if you're a
user yourself.

Given all of Twitter's hype, I feel Facebook could easily crush them. While
Twitter's monetization strategy is also, of course, questionable, the two
companies are tapping into a paradigm shift that has value that isn't quite
fully understood.

Imagine people using Twitter, but with the richness of Facebook's content.
While Twitter's 140-character limit was intentional, it's ultimately a
limitation, since Facebook users utilize the service very much in the same
way. Above all, though, Facebook knows profile information about you and your
friends. It can not only serve ads based on what it knows about you, but where
you are, and who is around you.

Facebook should ultimately strive to be the omnipresent social tool. There is
undeniable value and opportunity for expansion in this. They have the user
base, they just need to encourage people to use it in new ways. Twitter seems
to be moving toward this, yet there is a huge difference between Twitter's
user base (6M last I heard) and Facebook's (150M last I heard).

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GeneralMaximus
It might be just me, but I don't _like_ giving out all my info to Facebook. I
prefer Twitter because I like the fact that people can see only a limited
amount of information about me, and visit my website if they need to know
more.

I like Twitter because of its simplicity. Facebook is, IMO, just another
social network with a few extra features slapped on. Twitter is like that
small, efficient UNIX tool that you can combine with other tools to produce
something which has much more functionality than the original.

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numair
This sounds like a pre-emptive spinning of a senior exec quitting his job.
Your standard cold, corporate PR tactic...

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nostrademons
I'm kinda curious about this too, because the conventional wisdom in the
investing world is, "If the CFO leaves, short the stock." Does anyone know
what Mr. Yu's next job is? CFOs of fast-growing, about-to-IPO companies don't
just up and leave unless another _really_ good opportunity comes along. Plus,
if FaceBook grants options with a standard 4-year vesting period, I really
doubt Mr. Yu's options have vested, which means he's leaving a lot of money on
the table.

