

Is Facebook Worth $4 Billion? - kwamenum86
http://www.allfacebook.com/2008/11/is-facebook-worth-4-billion/

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kwamenum86
Well, they have about 120 million registered users. A 4 billion dollar
valuation places the average value of a user at 33.33 USD. Stated in those
terms it does not seem like such a stretch.

I think until someone comes up with a proven business model for social media
all social network site valuations are bloated. "Hugs" are not a form of legal
tender and neither are "maybes".

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unalone
The question is, _are_ they worth 30 dollars? I doubt each of them brings in
that much revenue in advertisements. It's arguable over whether or not promos
are earning advertisers that much.

I think that valuing a company based solely on users is faulty, if the users
are paying nothing.

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kwamenum86
Aye, it's faulty, but how else do you value a site like this?

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unalone
I'd be very cynical and evaluate low. Facebook has a lot of buzz and a killer
userbase, but that's a sign of intrinsic value, not monetary.

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kwamenum86
That's is what I meant when I said 33.33 does not seem like a stretch- seems
low. I doubt they made the valuation based solely on how many users they have,
meaning that they are really valuing their users at <33.33.

The thing is there are so many cool ways to exploit the data that it is tough
for people not to give them a multi-billion dollar valuation. They are
basically Google without a proven data mining strategy and business plan.

4 billion dollars seems high I admit. I think another thing you have to look
at is how valuable fb could be in the "right" hands i.e. someone who is
focused on revenue rather than growth. Then the multi-billion dollar valuation
becomes more realistic when you think about what a Microsoft, Yahoo, or Google
with do with that data.

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vaksel
no

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Zev
All the data they have might be though. How they're using it isn't worth $4
Billion though.

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vaksel
That data may be worth a huge sum of money, but not 4 billion.

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brianobush
uhh, well, there are a lot of people using it. they rant on about images they
post, whatever they are doing now. complete waste of time.

don't really see ads generating a huge revenue for them.

