Ask HN: Is $1.86 billion in revenue enough to keep Facebook viable?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2137783

by ericmsimons • 16 years ago

3 5 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

This seems like a really low number considering they have 500M "customers". I assume they're making a bit more than $2/person on the site (profit)...how can they possibly be worth $50 Billion?!

il• 16 years ago

Their users are not their customers, their advertisers are. Considering the low conversion rates of Facebook traffic, that seems just right.

lazylazylazy• 16 years ago

Speculation on the future. They have more data on you than anyone has had, ever. And, they are attracting the smartest people on earth. With those two things combined, they are going to be able to do a lot more than display Ads based on your listed interests and relationship status.

Think: modeling a marketing scheme against FB's data because they understand the idiosyncratic specifics of the demographic you are trying to hit, thus telling you with p<.01 whether or not it will be profitable.

That, and government contracts are profitable.

deafcheese• 15 years ago

What you're describing reminds me of a company I stumbled on a while ago - Recorded Future.

codelust• 16 years ago

Without knowing the actual details of their financials, it is always going to be blind speculation.

Also, 'viable' would mean different things in different contexts. I think it is certainly viable for the current investors to exit with a good return on their investment if the company goes public.

For the company itself, it can be a different story and we need more information to comment on that.

Zakuzaa• 16 years ago

Non-Paying Users = Product

Advertisers = Customers

Their valuation is based on potential, not just the current revenues.

Ask HN: Is $1.86 billion in revenue enough to keep Facebook viable?

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