Web2.0 Summit 2007 - San Francisco
Last Thursday at the Web2.0 Summit , there were some great discussions on the future of Facebook. Facebook As A Platform was the topic of discussion following a conversation with Meg Witman from Ebay. Participants in the discussion included Dave McClure , Seth Goldstein , Ali Partovi , Keith Rabois , and Lance Tokuda. The key conversation surrounded driving traffic not to your site but to your Facebook profile due to the large amount of potential customers which your profile can draw. Recent studies from Morgan Stanley’s Technology Trends document indicates that Facebook is now the 7th most visited site on the Internet next to Myspace. Also from ComScore, reports indicate accelerating Y/Y growth with 69MM visitors +348% Y/Y, 15B minutes, +631% Y/Y. Keith Rabois from Slide.com reemphasized that Facebook is not a toymedia and that there is nothing wrong with entertainment. Facebook with the giant widget development scene show that the apps provide what the users want.
The show conversation indicated that Microsoft was close to a deal with Facebook. Below is a quote from the Wall St. Journal today regarding the Microsoft investment that was finalized. “Facesoft” according to Jeremiah Owyang.
The software giant said yesterday that it will buy a 1.6% stake in Facebook, beating out Google Inc. after intense lobbying. The deal places a $15 billion valuation on the closely held Palo Alto, Calif., startup. Facebook, which runs a site where people set up personal Web pages, expects to break even this year, on a cash-flow basis, with revenue of $150 million, according to people familiar with the company.
The high valuation for Facebook is the latest sign of a renewed exuberance in Silicon Valley over Internet companies with lots of users — even if those users haven’t yet translated into a lot of revenue — and is reminiscent of the Internet bubble that ended in 2000. Microsoft and Facebook say the valuation is justified and that Facebook is starting to find ways to monetize its rapidly growing user base.
The high valuation has been a bit unsettling with many talking about the forthcoming bubble. Charlene Li also spoke about this in a past entry on the Forrester blog.
Abbey Klassen from Advertising Age also published some good commentary on the investment of $10MM into Facebook by Interpublic.
Incidentally, one of the most prescient investments into Facebook now appears to be Interpublic Group of Cos.’ summer 2006 commitment to spend $10 million in media dollars on the site in exchange for a 0.5% stake. That investments value today? About $75 million, if all the valuations pan out.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment