Comments on: Facebook investment puts spotlight on Microsoft stake

Although Microsoft may have to take a write-off at some point, the deal was never about the return on that initial investment in the social network.

[Mr. Dee]

Facebook is worth no more than 0.01 cents. Its just this useless social networking site that students use during class time to check how many applications they have on their wall. Really a waste of money. Twitter is where its at right now. Clear communication that's way more social than Facebook.

[sting7k]

Agree with above, Facebook has little if any value. People seem to be unware of the impending revolt of us original college only users. Many people I know are dropping like flies from Facebook or just simply stop doing anything on their pages.

The whole thing is a mess anyway.

[a2bucks]

Disagree with you both. I use both and find the Facebook is a better full-fledged experience. Facebook has more users, a current business plan, has more users, and does everything Twitter does, but better. Even though FB lost its college exclusivity, it is the vast numbers of users from across the age spectrum that have changed it for the better. I realize college users may revolt, but they will come back in the end, because everyone else is on FB. Just like college students realize after getting out of school that the rest of the business world still uses email.

[lennie22]

lol, good one with the email......

[cb3431]

I'll buy it right now for $5.

[dominicsotirescu]

Indeed, Facebook is nicer than other social networks. Their UI is clean and simple. I just joined recently and discovered that most of my friends (over 30) were members!
The ad revenue potential is huge. It is easier to sign up for advertising than Google for example.

[Vegaman_Dan]

I somewhat feel that Facebook is the AOL of today's times. It's meant largely for people who are unaware of other options out there, and are on FB simply because other people they know are, so that must be where you go.

Herd mentality.

That said, I don't have a FB account, never have and don't have any intention to. I haven't felt the need to do LiveJournal (dramaville), FaceBook, Myspace, or any of the social hangouts. Perhaps it's because like most geeks, we tend to be antisocial and go to our own little areas online to play around. I remember being on Second Life until it started getting media attention and became popular. At that point it was no longer fun and I moved on to another new site or technology instead.

[Aaronathomepro]

Herd mentality?

You're right, I'd much rather go to the social networking website that has nobody there. The reason facebook is so successful, is because it has been very successful. That's how social networks become so large. You follow the herd because you want to be with the herd, not because of some ignorance inspired compulsion to do so.

[Dalkorian]

Herd mentality, Aaron. Like "moo". Cattle being led to the (advertising) slaughter. Mindless drones with no life and no hope, where no one leads so everyone has the same view. Hades, but on the web.

But the best description I've heard for FB is "time vampire".

And yes, people go there because they haven't got the brains to know better. Being locked up in mommy's basement chatting online with people isn't being social, no matter what feel good label you want to delude yourself with. Try a bar, a dance club, a concert, a sporting event, a friends house, a park, a beach. Try getting a life.

This message was brought to you by a friendly, if slightly anti-social, gamer. ;-)

[lonestarState]

Facebook is nothing other than a nicer MySpace. I closed my Facebook account, because it is completely useless to me, another reason to waste my time. I do like how FB opened up the service for developers, perhaps it's worth tinkering by someone.

[kwhsy82]

Fact 1: Many people (whether you personally like Facebook or no) like it. Just a few users out there, and increasing numbers, right? Sort of hard to debate that. Call them fools if you like, but could you not confuse your personal opinion about a product about whether it is very popular?

Fact 2: It's hard for them to make money. If it were easy, they would not be taking these huge investments, right? It dilutes the current owners and also, the valuation is down from the MSFT investment. Also, if they wanted "lots" of money, they would go public ( a la OpenTable). But Wall Street would want to see profits or a trend toward profits.

Fact 3: Bandwidth costs are hurting them. There was a good article in the New York Times detailing how folks like Facebook and Youtube have a problem: tons of people accessing highband content in countries where there is little or no advertising (e.g. Indonesia). Even Google said that someday it might conceivably turn off high-quality video to certain countries for economic reasons and one video site already had. Bandwidth and servers are not free.

Opinion 1: My daughters love it. Too much. But they never click on ads and even if they did, they don't buy.

Opinion 2: Gmail does a far better job of delivering relevant adds that Facebook. Maybe it's because more "work" flows through Gmail, maybe it's because Google has huge "supplies" of advertisers with every possible interest, etc.. But as a sometimes facebook user, the ads are rarely relevant to me.

[Dalkorian]

Wow, this is to easy.

Fact 1. Many people like fads, for a time. Let's talk about the popularity of this particular time vampire in a year or two. Until then, it's just the result of herd mentality. Moo.

Fact 2. It's hard for them to make money. They have no business plan (how could they??), so they can't go public because Wall Street would want to see profits or a trend toward profits and it's hard for them to make money.

Fact 3. Bandwidth costs are hurting them because they keep adding "features" to the site. It's called "digging your own grave" and harkens back to fact 2 - they have no business plan.

Fact 4. Your daughters are infected with a virus by now. No, not an STD, a computer virus. You don't have to buy anything to get infected, sometimes you don't even have to click anything. Look up "drive by downloads".

Fact 5. Gmail delivers more relevant ads than FB because Gmail is powered by Google. Who did we learn powers FB searches again? Hint: their web search site is sorely lacking as well, so much so they're willing to bribe you to use it so they can claim someone uses it!