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Re: NASDAQ:FB

#201

Post by borism »

option_greek wrote: post #162
rauljara wrote: post #130

[Kilgore Trout had written a novel call the Big Board.] It was about an Earthling man and woman who were kidnapped by extra-terrestrials. They were put on display in a zoo on a planet called Zircon-212. These fictitious people in the zoo had a big board supposedly showing stock market quotations and comodity prices along one wall of their habitat, and a news ticker, and a telephone that was supposedly connected to a…

Makes me wonder if each of us are in such environment already.

yes, except we're our own extraterrestrials.

(feedback loops in markets are nothing short of amazing - nowhere else can you make something a reality to such a degree by just pretending it's real)

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#202

Post by corford »

paul wrote: post #200
corford wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except it isn't quite as "rags to riches" or "one man's dogged perseverance against the odds" as "one guy and his computer" implies, is it? Mark stumbled upon the thing while at Harvard after goofing around with a few different concepts for fun (like most teenage/college hackers do). The site took off due to a mix of: a). being birthed in Harvard (with all the clout, connections, mentoring and cachet that brings) b).…

Growing to a billion users is harder than you think. There were many other social networks, including ones started at other top schools, but only one survived, and it was because they understood what makes a site like fb work.

Yes, but is it $100 billion's worth of hard work? I guess that's what the market gets to decide.

Edit: also half the problem is caused by assuming 1 billion users translates to anything meaningful. Apart from being an impressive number in its own right, what exactly does it mean? Facebook is free to use and helps satisfy basic human social desires in a digital way. Great but would they have 1 billion users if it wasn't free? No.

If I could distribute beer for free and and offered every male on the planet over the age of 18 a free keg, I'd probably have a billion takers.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#203

Post by mikeryan »

ramanujan wrote: post #181

This is Hacker News. The top-voted comment on this thread really should be words of praise for what Zuckerberg and his team have accomplished. Every hacker, every entrepreneur, every creator should derive inspiration and uplift from Facebook's story. It's a rare bright day in the middle of the worst economic environment since the 1930s. It doesn't matter whether the company will grow into a $100B valuation. It does m…

Personally I don't wish Facebook any ill will. I think they've built a hell of a company.

That being said there seems to be quiet a bit of hubris around it as a company, much of which is likely not their fault and more based on the media attention which surrounds them. The 100B valuation (and all the previous funding round valuations) is a reflection on this. I think this is the first time where Facebook has to prove their value on an open market and all of us who have wondered what we're missing on those monster rounds get to see if we were right (or wrong) - and a lot of us like to be right....

Its a real interesting case study.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#204

Post by alecco »

ramanujan wrote: post #181

This is Hacker News. The top-voted comment on this thread really should be words of praise for what Zuckerberg and his team have accomplished. Every hacker, every entrepreneur, every creator should derive inspiration and uplift from Facebook's story. It's a rare bright day in the middle of the worst economic environment since the 1930s. It doesn't matter whether the company will grow into a $100B valuation. It does m…

Facebook was very dodgy from the start. And this IPO is the complete opposite of Google's. The unfairness and overhyping with every possible venue is ridiculous.

The outcome of this trend of "evil" IPOs will likely splatter the rest of our community for outsiders, like it happened in the dotcom bubble. Healthy and ethical startups will have trouble getting reasonably sized funds.

You should read about the Greenshoe trick, the tiny amount of shares on the market (~450m vs 2bn) and the trick Zuckerberg is placing on investors. No wonder it's back to 38 right now (and not lower because of underwriters holding the price there). You can only fool people for so long.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/caf4b0a4-a067-11e1-88e6-00144feabd... (registration walled article, but it's free)

The "evil" tech IPOs: Groupon, Zynga and Facebook. I hope they go away quickly so our industry can get past them.

Reckoning day:

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AGRPN -8% today

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ:ZNGA -15% today

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NASDAQ%3AFB +0.1% today

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#205

Post by bmj »

AznHisoka wrote: post #199
ramanujan wrote: post #181

This is Hacker News. The top-voted comment on this thread really should be words of praise for what Zuckerberg and his team have accomplished. Every hacker, every entrepreneur, every creator should derive inspiration and uplift from Facebook's story. It's a rare bright day in the middle of the worst economic environment since the 1930s. It doesn't matter whether the company will grow into a $100B valuation. It does m…

Facebook was just an iteration over other social networks. If FB didn't exist today, things would be a tad different - we'd be using MySpace to connect, Flickr to share photos, and AIM to chat. It's not like they introduced the internet, or a cure to cancer.

Well, except that unlike using Flickr for photos, AIM for chat, and MySpace to connect, using Facebook puts all your eggs in a single basket. As others have pointed out, that is likely the source of much of the disdain for FB 'round these parts.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#206

Post by waterlesscloud »

AznHisoka wrote: post #199
ramanujan wrote: post #181

This is Hacker News. The top-voted comment on this thread really should be words of praise for what Zuckerberg and his team have accomplished. Every hacker, every entrepreneur, every creator should derive inspiration and uplift from Facebook's story. It's a rare bright day in the middle of the worst economic environment since the 1930s. It doesn't matter whether the company will grow into a $100B valuation. It does m…

Facebook was just an iteration over other social networks. If FB didn't exist today, things would be a tad different - we'd be using MySpace to connect, Flickr to share photos, and AIM to chat. It's not like they introduced the internet, or a cure to cancer.

Google was just an iteration over other search engines.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#207

Post by pbiggar »

corford wrote: post #196
ramanujan wrote: post #181

This is Hacker News. The top-voted comment on this thread really should be words of praise for what Zuckerberg and his team have accomplished. Every hacker, every entrepreneur, every creator should derive inspiration and uplift from Facebook's story. It's a rare bright day in the middle of the worst economic environment since the 1930s. It doesn't matter whether the company will grow into a $100B valuation. It does m…

Except it isn't quite as "rags to riches" or "one man's dogged perseverance against the odds" as "one guy and his computer" implies, is it? Mark stumbled upon the thing while at Harvard after goofing around with a few different concepts for fun (like most teenage/college hackers do). The site took off due to a mix of: a). being birthed in Harvard (with all the clout, connections, mentoring and cachet that brings) b).…

Do you think that maybe, just maybe, Zuckerberg might have contributed in some way? I don't know, maybe he took a good concept at a good time and executed it so well that it's now worth $100B?

FFS, give the man (and the rest of his now giant team) some credit. $100B doesn't just happen.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#208

Post by larrys »

paul wrote: post #188
ramanujan wrote: post #181

This is Hacker News. The top-voted comment on this thread really should be words of praise for what Zuckerberg and his team have accomplished. Every hacker, every entrepreneur, every creator should derive inspiration and uplift from Facebook's story. It's a rare bright day in the middle of the worst economic environment since the 1930s. It doesn't matter whether the company will grow into a $100B valuation. It does m…

Agreed. The growing levels of envy and cynicism on hn is unhealthy. Trashing other people's efforts doesn't make your own more successful.

"cynicism"

Because it's a boatload of money. Over twice the value of HP and almost half the value of Walmart. Slightly higher market cap than Amazon. It's absurd.

I think there is plenty of reason for cynicism. And I didn't know that HN readers were supposed to all be cut from the same bolt of cloth.

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#209

Post by waterlesscloud »

corford wrote: post #202
paul wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Growing to a billion users is harder than you think. There were many other social networks, including ones started at other top schools, but only one survived, and it was because they understood what makes a site like fb work.

Yes, but is it $100 billion's worth of hard work? I guess that's what the market gets to decide. Edit: also half the problem is caused by assuming 1 billion users translates to anything meaningful. Apart from being an impressive number in its own right, what exactly does it mean? Facebook is free to use and helps satisfy basic human social desires in a digital way. Great but would they have 1 billion users if it wasn…

So your basic issue is that in your judgement the founders and employees don't deserve their level of success?

Which internet company does, in your judgement?

Re: NASDAQ:FB

#210

Post by Retric »

paul wrote: post #198
Retric wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I respect what it took to get Facebook to this point and realize it has helped millions of people. I still find the entire concept rather creepy, and much of there upper management sleazy. I also expect a lot of people to lose a 'lot' of money either directly or due to huge opportunity costs when buying Facebook stock. PS: I have never signed up, and I know plenty of people that stopped using Facebook. I also s…

How much of the upper management do you personally know? Have you actually met them, or are you just repeating the opinion of the hn mob?

I find it amusing that you assume those are the only two options. I joined HN 1701 days ago, but I already had a dim view of FB's management due to several actions taken by the company as well as some of their internal policies.
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