Facebook being abandoned by its core market. You'd be better off investing in Greek government bonds

[JohnyCanuck]

The reason why MySpace died was simple: its users migrated to Facebook, which had a cleaner user interface and fewer adverts. But where MySpace was, at its peak, valued at half a billion dollars, now we are told that its successor is worth 200 times as much. In its initial public offering (IPO), which is happening today, the firm is expected to be valued at $104 billion. One Hundred And Four Billion Dollars.

That's nuts, but let's just explain why. Ordinarily, an investor would hope to earn at least 5 per cent on an investment – ideally more, since historically, you can earn that just buying Government bonds. So for a company to be worth $104 billion, you would hope for at least $5 billion a year of profit. Really, to justify the risk of owning shares, you'd want more – $10 billion perhaps. Every year. Forever.

But Facebook's revenue is currently just $3.7 billion, and its profit is around $500 million. So the website is making less than one tenth of the profit you would hope it to earn in the long run. By contrast, Google earns 10 times as much revenue – $37 billion – and 20 times as much profit, and yet is only valued at around $200 billion.

snip

My friends barely use Facebook either. When I was a student, I used to log in approximately every ten minutes. If you said "Facebook break", everyone knew what you meant. When I logged in, I could guarantee a stream of amusing "banter" and gossip, as links and pictures were shared. Now, I log in, and it's a wasteland. Almost all the links I click on and the online running conversation I have has migrated to Twitter, which I check religiously. So too have all the most prolific Facebook users I used to know. While we probably still count as "regular users", for more and more of my generation, Facebook is little more than an electronic address book. That's why big advertisers, like GM, are reducing their spend on the company.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielknowles/100159144/100159144/

[Woody Woodpecker]

1. Count me among the users that quit FB

due to privacy concerns and their system have changed so much.

So no, no facebook or any other social media for me (I don't tweet)

[KurtNYC]

2. They will use the IPO money to buy or crush rivals

thwart innovation and become bloated and even more useless, kind of like AOL and Microsoft.

Heck, they may use the money to buy Twitter and roll those users back into FB.

[LeftinOH]

3. Facebook is fine for people who don't need by-the-minute status updates

and running commentary on every. damn. thing. As an "electronic address book", it may be settling into its niche. They could get rid of that stupid & confusing Timeline, though.

Some of us don't see the need for immediacy on social media.

[CJCRANE]

6. To me, the timelime seems like a

dream come true for intelligence agencies. You have a person's entire life history mapped out in chronological order.

I primarily use facebook as a unversal mailbox. My friends can look me up and message me wherever I am in the world without worrying about email or physical addresses (or changeable phone numbers).

[kentuck]

4. Are we looking at another tech bubble..?

that will soon burst? With Facebook leading the way?

[robinlynne]

5. Good. Facebook donates to the Heritage Foundation.

[notadmblnd]

7. I've never used either- Myface or Spacebook

And my experience with Yahoo is just that- full of Yahoos. I don't tweet, chirp or squeak either. AFAIC they can all go away