Facebook IPO
 

I'm tempted but more than a little worried, social media doesn't have a great history on the markets and MySpace didn't take long to go down the pan.

Anyone else?

Yep I reckon it could vanish as easily as it rose.

Its market is its product as far as I can tell. It's like an average bar where everyone goes because everyone else goes there..until they don't.

Still people said google was a bubble at one time.

Google 'circles' didn't exactly set the world on fire though did it.

Given the amount of investment other companies are making in the Facebook platform to conduct a lot of their own marketing and advertising I think they'll stick around for a while. How many times do you see a TV advert with a Facebook URL at the end of it, or a newspaper ad. Companies are betting big on it.

Even if a new competitor appeared tomorrow, it would take a bit of time before the rest of the business world up sticks and moved platform.

I can't see it going anytime soon...

And if it did you'd be able to see it coming a mile off.

I have never been tempted to have anything to do with it.

Does it actually have any significant kind of an advantage in life in general?

Les

It has a remarkable way of creating problems if that counts?

I think I'll be in.

It'll get flooded with ads almost overnight and everyone will stop using it.

Did you know, in the UK, 1/3 of all divorce petitions now mention Facebook as a contributing factor?

Source?

Smacks of the .com bubble to me.

Google just seems to have worked - luck IMO has something to do with it.

Bit like Sega Vs Nintendo. Sega offering wasn't bad it just didn't work or wasn't marketed as as good as Nintendo.

BBC breakfast said Facebook could be valued at $23bn - how? in what way? I don't pay to use Facebook and I've never bought anything as a result of using Facebook. I don't really understand how something that is free to use can be worth billions of dollars. I understand the advertising but internet adverts have always seemed like a waste of time to me.

Take ebay, you pay fees for buying and selling. There are adverts on the page - same as there are adverts when looking on SNet but I've never and will be unlikely to ever buy something as a result of an online advert on SNet, Ebay or Facebook.

From a marketing perspective it's incredibly powerful. With 800 million members, you can accurately target specific demographics: For example, males aged 20-30 in the London area with an interest in x,y and z.

The value of the company is based on how much this powerful marketing tool can be sold for. That's the advantage.

As with all things though, this will have a finite life until the next big thing comes along. Some people will get rich, some will lose all their money and there will be a great gnashing of teeth when it all comes down.

The bubble is going to burst just like it did with friends reunited and myspace. Bebo was another that has pretty much become extinct.

Twitter seems to be the new craze, people are deleting their FB accounts left right and centre, fed up of reading the drivel that is posted on there day in day out.

I think its a disastrous move for anyone to put money into it. Look at bebo, started in 2005 and bought by AOL for $850m in 2008. fast forward to April 2010 and AOL then sold it for less than $10m. In the UK, both bebo and Facebook were as popular as each other back in 2007/2008, bebo lost out, facebook gained.

Same thing is happening with FB/Twitter, Twitter has the celeb element, facebook is getting far too intrusive for some, bye bye facebook in the next 5yrs as people get bored easily and IMO facebook has had its day.

I still have my FB but I delete it for months on end and then eventually get nosey again, re-activate it, have it for a few weeks and then delete it again. I seem to be in a cycle of doing this and many of my friends are similar. If you install the unfriend add on, you will pretty much see on a daily basis friends deactivating their accounts and then pop up again a few months later.

No advantage worth speaking of then!

Les

Yes all understood, I don't see any point in joining it from my own point of view then.

Scoobynet holds the only real interest as far as I am concerned.

Les

+1

Massively overvalued, whatever the opening price of the oversubscribed share will be, watch it fall like a stone in the following weeks once the hype dies down.

Could be another case of third time lucky.

Search - AltaVista, Yahoo, Google
Social Media - MySpace, Bebo, Facebook

Google would help you out, it's really easy to use, honest.

But to save you the effort: http://blog.divorce-online.co.uk/?p=2338

Apparently there was some guy who spray painted some murals in the early days. They paid him in a few stock - they were unheard of then.

The estimated value now is $200m!!!!!

This IPO is mainly an excuse for existing investors to cash out, you already missed the party if you want to make some money out of Facebook.

wouldn't touch it with a barge pole - well maybe to short it ;)

I bet the majority of people here saying its dead, people are deleting acounts are over 25. probably over 30.

I don't think it's going anywhere

I may have had a little dabble. Put an order at $40 so hopefully picked some up. Anyone else?

Not a hope


This ^^

That's the reason I was told not to buy Google. Wish I'd ignored it.

Huge bubble IMHO. Facebooks value lies in the number of users, they could go elsewhere at a whim. Just like a popular bar IMHO.

Like Google.

I think it will be around for a while :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqggW08BWO0

I find myself using Facebook less and less not sure if it's maturity or the people on it.

I much prefer twitter now.

at $35 a pop, I think not. shortsighted? Probably. not getting my data harvested by zukerberg et al, most definately.