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Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more

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Re: Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more

#2
Facebook made under $300 million last year, was a little shy of breaking even, and at first expected to make towards $400 million in revenue this year. But the company said in late March — incidentally at the time that chief financial officer Gideon Yu left the company — that it was beating projections by 70 percent. I’ve confirmed that this run rate has the company possibly breaking half a billion in revenue by the end of the year.

If that's true, it's remarkable.

Re: Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more

#4
post #2

Facebook made under $300 million last year, was a little shy of breaking even, and at first expected to make towards $400 million in revenue this year. But the company said in late March — incidentally at the time that chief financial officer Gideon Yu left the company — that it was beating projections by 70 percent. I’ve confirmed that this run rate has the company possibly breaking half a billion in revenue by the…

What are they making money off? I have never heard of anyone clicking an ad on facebook. (conversely I have met few Internet users who have NOT clicked a Google ad)

They could be selling data/information. If so, I hope it's anonymized.

Re: Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more

#5
post #4
post #2

Facebook made under $300 million last year, was a little shy of breaking even, and at first expected to make towards $400 million in revenue this year. But the company said in late March — incidentally at the time that chief financial officer Gideon Yu left the company — that it was beating projections by 70 percent. I’ve confirmed that this run rate has the company possibly breaking half a billion in revenue by the…

What are they making money off? I have never heard of anyone clicking an ad on facebook. (conversely I have met few Internet users who have NOT clicked a Google ad) They could be selling data/information. If so, I hope it's anonymized.

i have clicked on facebook ads, when at times they are actually really interesting to me. not often, but a few times. i probably click on google ads about the same amount (rarely) and otherwise never click on other ads across the web.

Re: Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more

#6
post #4
post #2

Facebook made under $300 million last year, was a little shy of breaking even, and at first expected to make towards $400 million in revenue this year. But the company said in late March — incidentally at the time that chief financial officer Gideon Yu left the company — that it was beating projections by 70 percent. I’ve confirmed that this run rate has the company possibly breaking half a billion in revenue by the…

What are they making money off? I have never heard of anyone clicking an ad on facebook. (conversely I have met few Internet users who have NOT clicked a Google ad) They could be selling data/information. If so, I hope it's anonymized.

I'd tell you what I'm getting insane clickthrough on, but I don't want the competition, thanks. Some ads target REALLY well.

Re: Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more

#7
post #4
post #2

Facebook made under $300 million last year, was a little shy of breaking even, and at first expected to make towards $400 million in revenue this year. But the company said in late March — incidentally at the time that chief financial officer Gideon Yu left the company — that it was beating projections by 70 percent. I’ve confirmed that this run rate has the company possibly breaking half a billion in revenue by the…

What are they making money off? I have never heard of anyone clicking an ad on facebook. (conversely I have met few Internet users who have NOT clicked a Google ad) They could be selling data/information. If so, I hope it's anonymized.

full disclosure: I build/make money from facebook apps

Facebook made under $300 million last year, was a little shy of breaking even...

Why is this surprising to so many? There are dozens of developers that are netting 100k+ a month (yes i actually talk to one of them quite often), and at least half of this is from ads. Facebook is the largest social network in the world and growing at about 1 million users a day; why is it a surprise that they are actually almost break even?

Re: Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more

#8
post #7
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are they making money off? I have never heard of anyone clicking an ad on facebook. (conversely I have met few Internet users who have NOT clicked a Google ad) They could be selling data/information. If so, I hope it's anonymized.

full disclosure: I build/make money from facebook apps Facebook made under $300 million last year, was a little shy of breaking even... Why is this surprising to so many? There are dozens of developers that are netting 100k+ a month (yes i actually talk to one of them quite often), and at least half of this is from ads. Facebook is the largest social network in the world and growing at about 1 million users a day; wh…

My surprise is largely based on the recently published articles suggesting their burn rate was something insane like $200M / year. On the other hand if there are developers making $100k+ a month based on ads, I guess I am just the wrong demographic for facebook ads.

Re: Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more

#9
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are they making money off? I have never heard of anyone clicking an ad on facebook. (conversely I have met few Internet users who have NOT clicked a Google ad) They could be selling data/information. If so, I hope it's anonymized.

i have clicked on facebook ads, when at times they are actually really interesting to me. not often, but a few times. i probably click on google ads about the same amount (rarely) and otherwise never click on other ads across the web.

Like I said elsewhere, I may just not be in the right demographic of facebook ad clickers. (Just another way of saying maybe I am getting old :)

Re: Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more

#10
post #2

Facebook made under $300 million last year, was a little shy of breaking even, and at first expected to make towards $400 million in revenue this year. But the company said in late March — incidentally at the time that chief financial officer Gideon Yu left the company — that it was beating projections by 70 percent. I’ve confirmed that this run rate has the company possibly breaking half a billion in revenue by the…

I don't understand what everyone's so surprised about. Myspace makes nearly $1 billion in revenue, and Facebook is larger, has better technology, has a more affluent audience, of which they have more information about, has multiple revenue streams (billions of CPM ads [I estimate 6B by Quantcast numbers, they also have a lot more space for them since the re-design], tens of thousands of targeted ad campaigns [many of which I've seen, some of which I've clicked], newsfeed insertion partnerships [youtube charges in excess of 200K for front page ads], gifts [obviously not the core of their revenue stream, but I guarantee they pull in a few million], platform [they aren't really monetizing it yet, but developers are making hundreds of thousands to millions a month on it, so I wouldn't be surprised if FB eventually gets in on some of that action]), etc.

I know it's fashionable to hate or doubt Facebook nowadays, but if you look at the numbers instead of your own personal experience with Facebook (which, since your on Hacker News, is probably not very similar with their core user base), I think you'll come to the conclusion that the demise of Facebook is not just around the corner.

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