Talking stocks, trading, and investing in general

[otc]



Its not as strong a company as people make it out to be. All they have is a demographic but that demographic is fickle and when they tire of it, and they will, FB will be like other online presences, overhyped and then transitions into a stable business, but never a juggernaut unless they make brilliant moves and really expand their reach. A cute site with pics of your friends and a bit of bullshit chit chat? Not so much. I have never had a facebook account and dont give a **** about it. I fail to understand why its so popular.

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[Slopho]

The bottom line with FB is I don't understand how they can justify the valuation. The only way to really make money on this is if they charged for membership, which if they ever did (even $1 a month) I think people would bolt.

 

[otc]

That is the real key.

I understand why it is a popular service. I fail to see why people think it should be worth boatloads of money or even why it has things like the ability to throw a billion dollars at another equally frustrating business model (I can understand why instagram is popular but not why it is worth any money)

 

[FLW]

In its defense, FB is more integrated into society than many of its predecessors (MySpace, Friendster, etc.). I think that people like the fact that it generates the interest of social networking without seeming as trivial as others, theoretically leading people to be far less likely to drop it on a whim for a new platform. The conventional wisdom is that an audience of XXX,000,000 people is just too large not to generate money. Facebook could be a strong and profitable company.

That being said, it is overvalued. Strong and profitable does not mean market beating or world dominating. This is hype generated by a thirsty market and droves of people looking for the next AAPL or GOOG. FB is neither and assuming that it is so is done at great peril.

 

[djblisk]

Facebook now is too intrusive for its own good and a bit too complicated. When your parents are on facebook, the cool factor is gone.
I think Facebook out thought the proverbial room. People loved it because of its simplicity, ease of use, and unintrusiveness yet ability to connect friends from all over. Instead of making it more desirable, facebook has made itself less desirable. A lot of people use twitter now.

 

[Slopho]



In its defense, FB is more integrated into society than many of its predecessors (MySpace, Friendster, etc.). I think that people like the fact that it generates the interest of social networking without seeming as trivial as others, theoretically leading people to be far less likely to drop it on a whim for a new platform. The conventional wisdom is that an audience of XXX,000,000 people is just too large not to generate money. Facebook could be a strong and profitable company.
That being said, it is overvalued. Strong and profitable does not mean market beating or world dominating. This is hype generated by a thirsty market and droves of people looking for the next AAPL or GOOG. FB is neither and assuming that it is so is done at great peril.

1. Do you have a Facebook account?

2. Would you pay to use Facebook if there was a free alternative?

 

[djblisk]

Zynga up 4%

 

[Dbear]

Guys, social networking is not going away. I think the older demographic are the ones that tend to "not understand FB". Every kid has a FB. All my friends have FBs. FB is essentially the biggest photo sharing website in the world. Sharing what you do and pictures is a part of life and will not suddenly go away.

Instagram is worth that much because gathered like 40 million users in a short amount of time. Google had an opportunity to buy instagram and integrate it into google+ as the killer app to rival facebook. Facebook bought it as a defense mechanism and also to remain dominant in the photo-sharing market.

 

[Slopho]



Guys, social networking is not going away.  I think the older demographic are the ones that tend to "not understand FB".  Every kid has a FB.  All my friends have FBs.  FB is essentially the biggest photo sharing website in the world.  Sharing what you do and pictures is a part of life and will not suddenly go away.

Instagram is worth that much because gathered like 40 million users in a short amount of time.  Google had an opportunity to buy instagram and integrate it into google+ as the killer app to rival facebook.  Facebook bought it as a defense mechanism and also to remain dominant in the photo-sharing market.  

Ok. Monetize this for me.

 

[Dbear]

^ well, to put it simply, they make money from ads. Currently, the amount of money they get from each user is quite small. But they are going to go over 1,000,000,000 users soon enough.

There in lines the opportunity. What will they do with the IPO money? How will this play out? Your guess is as good as mine.

But you can't ignore the opportunity they have, and that's why their valuation is so large.

I'm currently undecided on FB--though leaning towards it. I'm just trying to argue the other side here.

 

[Slopho]



^ well, to put it simply, they make money from ads.  Currently, the amount of money they get from each user is quite small.  But they are going to go over 1,000,000,000 users soon enough.  

There in lines the opportunity.  What will they do with the IPO money?  How will this play out?  Your guess is as good as mine.

But you can't ignore the opportunity they have, and that's why their valuation is so large.  

I'm currently undecided on FB--though leaning towards it.  I'm just trying to argue the other side here.  

So they get money everytime an ad pops up on Facebook?

 

[Dbear]

Yes, a company will pay FB to advertise on FB. A Company would want to advertise on FB because they can reach a targeted demographic out of their billion users.

 

[javyn]

What Dbear says, yeah. Do I understand it? Hell no. But I don't even understand how Google makes money.

 

[otc]



Ok. Monetize this for me.

I would have bolded the second paragraph.

 

[Slopho]



Yes, a company will pay FB to advertise on FB.  A Company would want to advertise on FB because they can reach a targeted demographic out of their billion users.  

Okay, Do I have to click on the ad? What I mean is where is the metric for an advertiser to know how effective their ad banner is?