Twitter, FriendFeed and Facebook Are Over-Hyped. The Real Action Is Happening Somewhere Else.

If you follow the blogosphere (yukkkk), the Twitterati (eurghhhh),  the Facebookers, or the FriendFeeders, you might be forgiven for believing that these social networks are where all the action is happening right now.   For example, high-profile bloggers, tweeters, and Facebookers such as Robert Scoble, and Chief Mahooligan, Jason Calacanis are in love with Twitter at [...]

AOL Buys Bebo As Interest In Social Networking Declines

You’ve no doubt seen the news that AOL is buying social network Bebo for $850 in cash.  By any standards, that’s a great exit for all involved.   Bebo was founded in 2005 and raised a single round of venture capital ($15M for 16% of the company, apparently) in 2006.  They’ve been pretty successful in growing [...]

Why The Facebook Targeted Advertising System Is Broken

I’ve been following Facebook’s targeted advertising platforms since they were launched. Now that they’ve been running for a while, I have to ask: are the targeted advertising systems Facebook offers to advertisers fundamentally broken? I think they might be. Here’s my top three reasons why:

The targeting doesn’t work. The ads I see [...]

New Facebook Ads - The $100B Gamble

Facebook has just revealed the details of its new social advertising platform. At first glance, the ideas seems pretty smart, making excellent use of the key strengths of Facebook. However, I think there’s actually a massive potential problem with the new offering: a problem that might mean Facebook has no chance [...]

Why Would A Top Talent Developer Join Facebook Now?

So… I keep hearing how all the top talent in Silicon Valley wants to join Facebook… but why? I can’t think of a single reason why they would; and I can think of a whole bunch of reasons why they wouldn’t. For example…

Coding social networking software is pretty tedious - it’s essentially nothing [...]

What Return Will Facebook’s New Investors Get?

Wow! If the rumours are true, not only has Microsoft bought a small stake in Facebook at $15B valuation, but so have at least a couple of non-corporate investors. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of a return this latest group of investors get from Facebook, because the only way to [...]

Has Zuckerberg Inhaled?

I’ve written before about the issue of Facebook valuation, suggesting that a rational valuation for Facebook today might be around $2B (see Facebook - True Value Less Than $2B?). Now, in response to the values of $100B being touted, Jason Calacanis has valued Facebook at around $1B-$2B; or $2B-$5B, depending on how you [...]

How Low Do Valuations Go When A Bubble Bursts?

Until you’ve been round the block a few times, if you own (or work at) a hot company, you believe that there’s only one direction for the valuation to go; and that’s up. People have been saying that Facebook shouldn’t sell out for $6B, because it’s soon going to be worth much more. [...]

Facebook - True Value Less Than $2B?

A few days ago, I wrote about Facebook in the context of an IPO, and I said then that the big question is what is Facebook really worth. Now, thanks to Valleywag, we have some credible numbers from which we can estimate the company’s value. I’m finding it hard to get the [...]

The Problem With A Facebook IPO

There continues to be lots of talk about the valuation of Facebook. One of Facebook’s founders has apparently suggested that they wouldn’t sell the company for less than $10B; and, as I wrote recently, people have been advising the owners of Facebook that it would be a big mistake to sell for $6B. [...]