
Why Facebook isn't Worth $50 Billion - showngo
http://brooksreview.net/2011/01/worth/
======
imkevingao
financially Facebook isn't $50 billion, that's probably justified, but
intrinsically I personally think $50 billion undervalues Facebook. If it was a
country, it's the third most populated one. Name me a country that has a GDP
lower than $50 billion. @ $50 billion dollar evaluation and 600 million users,
each user is valued at $83.33 which I think is undervaluing the lifetime value
of a customer for Facebook. I'm pretty sure at sometime in the near future, a
typical Facebook user would spend more than $83.33 on the Facebook website.
You just have to wait for the innovational monetization model.

~~~
christophe971
I may agree that Facebook is ultimately undervaluated, but : "If it was a
country, it's the third most populated one. Name me a country that has a GDP
lower than $50 billion" is the most non-sensical analogy I've seen in a long
time.

~~~
imkevingao
haha, well to start off I feel a bit honored to allow you to see something you
haven't seen for a long time. But maybe it wasn't the best way to illustrate a
point, but it wasn't really meant to be an analogy. The goal was to emphasize
the poplation of Facebook, how how valuable of an asset the user database is.
I mean no one doubts that Facebook is a community, but when a community gets
THIS big, it's somewhat justified to call it a country.

~~~
jganetsk
But it's not justified to call it a country if you are going to compare its
valuation as a company providing a social network to GDP, which is the sum
total of all economic activity of the entire population.

~~~
imkevingao
okay fine, i do agree to the fact that it's not the best comparison ever, but
it gets the point across. The point wasn't to make the perfect analogy, but to
get across the value of Facebook relative to countries. How do you value a
country? Many ways, but one of the most popular one is GDP. How do you value a
company? Its valuations. That was the thinking behind my statement. I mean if
you don't see it, it's fine, disagreements are justified.

