Comments on: Andreessen: Facebook revenue to top $500 million in '09

The Netscape founder, a member of Facebook's board of directors, says the social network has the potential to be a billion-dollar company already.

[kushka53]

HUGELY overinflated site--I'm a reporter that with a little digging found loads of duplicate and fake accounts. Someone on this beat ought to really scrutinize the claims of FB's management as there are a lot less people on this site than they claim...

[MoistFist]

congrats Caroline,
getting front page news status on google news page.
~Brandon C

[aSiriusTHoTH]

Hype you very much. If Facebook could bring in $500,000,000 in 09' they could of did this in 08'. Why didn't they? BECAUSE THEY CAN'T.

[Mr. Dee]

I have been using Facebook more often recently. The popularity just won't let up. I think every single person I know is now on it. I like the new unique User name ID too.

[RompStar_420]

I am not using Face Book, lol :- ) I have a big problem with their Terms.

This is from 2.1 under Terms: (7/6/2009 1:50PM)

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook ("IP License"). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account (except to the extent your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it).

[dev2k]

Does anyone EVER click on any of those ads????

How is it possible they could make that much?

[Cue Twilight Zone music...]

[grossj144]

They don't appear to charge by the click, at least not strictly speaking. It seems that they charge in a way that is similar to how networks charge...based on viewers. Add in the ability to comment on the ads and you get near real time access to market data. That probably boosts the amount that they can charge for certain ads.

[jesmmifs]

Well I have used Facebook as part of my marketing plan, and FB users do click on ads. I received all the traffic I payed for. I don't know why people are finding it so difficult to believe that Facebook is earning all these millions in revenue.

[kgsbca]

That sounds impressive at face value, but given that they have about 200 million registered users, it means they only get about $2.50 per user per year. Kind of tough to scale that business. Unless they can think of a way to increase the amount of revenue per user, their chances for success are limited.

[erges10]

The inflation of the FB valuation is comparable to Andreessens ego...he has failed more than he has won. This is PR, and I dont believe the hype.

[grossj144]

Edison failed far more often than he succeeded. He probably had a big ego, too.

[edno29]

these days they would place a text add
in your underpants if they could!

[MarkjMayhew]

Mark Zuckerberg is my God

[jonathan0766]

It's not exactly difficult to predict that Facebook's currency effort will fail miserably. They're going down a path several companies before them have tried and flunked at, and they're going to fail at it for similar reasons. I'm willing to bet that Facebook users don't need or want another PayPal, much less their social networking site acting as one. Revenue generation has to be formulated to match the nature of the business, the currency approach is Facebook attempting to force a revenue outcome by picking an approach (PayPal) that does well online. Amazon.com tried that, woops. Amazon thought they could do auctions too, made tons of sense right? It's all ecommerce so why not, woops. It's the most common mistake sites like Facebook make (tons of audience, throw a bunch of things against the wall, surely one of them will stick).

18 months from now there will be write-ups that mention, barely in passing, the failed currency attempt. Facebook will quietly scale it down in that time. Facebook will have to come up with a new form of revenue generation that optimizes what its network does well, rather than just thinking they can clone other successful efforts because they have 200m users.

[pkrter]

Maybe they can afford to hire the folks being let go at MySpace. That would give me one more reason to like Facebook.

[Alex_SV]

$500 revenue ... hmm ... now I am curious about FB's gross profit margin.