Facebook is not worth $100 Billion. Not worth $10 Billion. OK, now we can start arguing about what tools to use to measure worth, but thank goodness rational voices are appearing in the industry...see these excellent posting by Jason Calacanis on why Facebook is maybe worth somewhere between $2-5 Billion (full posting here ). I think less, but for hype value I will go with Jason...
Bottom line: Over-hyping the current value of Facebook is bad for everyone in the industry, except maybe for the existing shareholders of Facebook, if they get cash and run...
Yes, there is a real business to be had in social networking platforms that work. We are still figuring out the business.
Oh, and one of the most interesting points Jason highlights: Facebook usage, according to Comscore, actually went down in September as compared to August. Could it be burn-out beginning? Perhaps the world is starting to exhaust the supply of "friends" (I have started to get friend requests from dead people, I kid you not).
As a followup to the dip, some people are attributing the dip to kids going to school. Who knows. While Facebook may be a great social utility, all the over-hyping of the Facebook platform, the over-valuation, and legal matters could end Facebook and cause an industry wide panic.
Posted by: Zvi Band | October 12, 2007 at 07:15 PM
Apparently the ny times agrees. Take a look at this article.
Posted by: Elan M | October 17, 2007 at 03:00 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/business/media/17bubble.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Posted by: Elan M | October 17, 2007 at 03:01 PM