Social Networking Bonazza!

dsturbed · Mar 28, 2006

Watching CNBC - On the Money.

This is getting ridiculous. Apparently Facebook.com trying to sell for 2B with a B - reports say they turned down 750m and 950m.

This is actually the first time Im hearing of Facebook.com, but they have more PV's than Amazon.com - WTF is going on.

Are these sites really worth these outrageous bountys ? How many Myspace like sites can there be. I honestly don't see the value. Advertisers can't be interested in these sites, there is NO CTR. Not worth mentioning anyway. 2B!

There is NOTHING special about these sites... you could very easily throw together the SAME exact site with:

phpFox
Altrasoft EFriends
... and many more

Where is the innovation ?

gatorgrad · Mar 28, 2006

i guess the innovation is that these sites have millions of members. the one thing I like about facebook is that you have to have a college email account in order to sign up

GT Web · Mar 28, 2006

Facebook is an incredibly popular social website, many of my friends visit it daily.

It is pretty stupid to make comments like you did without knowing any specifics (traffic, pageviews, revenue, etc).

There is NOTHING special about these sites... you could very easily throw together the SAME exact site with:

phpFox
Altrasoft EFriends
... and many more

If you think its that easy then go for it...

dsturbed · Mar 28, 2006

gatorgrad said:
i guess the innovation is that these sites have millions of members. the one thing I like about facebook is that you have to have a college email account in order to sign up

That's not innovation. And the traffic is frugal at best. Dare I say, these aren't even niche sites. It's a different (notice I didn't say new) type of "forum" dare I say.

Its well paid for PR. That's about it. Either way, I don't get it., theres got to be something better!

GT Web said:
Facebook is an incredibly popular social website, many of my friends visit it daily.

It is pretty stupid to make comments like you did without knowing any specifics (traffic, pageviews, revenue, etc).

If you think its that easy then go for it...

GT You have a knack for calling others stupid when they merely voice their opinions! You've done it numerous times - please STFU unless you have something constructive to add. I will be sure to show you the same respect.

I listened to the specifics. Ive done a little due dilligence on the site, I still stand by my opinion

Best,
Anthony

Beachie · Mar 28, 2006

social networking sites aren't a new thing - they've been around for years (icq, sixdegrees etc). people want to socialise

and traffic = money, especially if you have all their demographics.. :wink:

dsturbed · Mar 28, 2006

Beachie said:
social networking sites aren't a new thing - they've been around for years (icq, sixdegrees etc). people want to socialise and traffic = money, especially if you have all their demographics.. :wink:

Yes. But is it worth 2B ? How much did Myspace.com sell for ?

droplister · Mar 28, 2006

myspace sold for 1 million i think, and then 400 million.

Facebook has a better model than myspace, the users have to go through a simple verification to make sure they are part of a school. But it lacks in some of the stuff myspace has. I dislike both heavily since I can make my own website for myself without using someone elses service, but both are huge marketing oppurtunities. The selling of myspace accounts is common just to spam the crap outta friends.

dvestors · Mar 28, 2006

dsturbed said:
There is NOTHING special about these sites... you could very easily throw together the SAME exact site with:

Easy to put together -Yes. Easy to get 60M+ members (myspace) with a very large % that return daily to weekly - No.

18-24 yr. olds are the most frivolous spenders....something the facebook and myspace have in common..

If it sells for 2B then it's worth 2B...to the buyer.

dsturbed · Mar 28, 2006

dvestors said:
If it sells for 2B then it's worth 2B...to the buyer.

:yo: Point taken.

Edwin · Mar 28, 2006

The buyers must also have a way or be planning to find a way to maintain a "relationship" with a good number of the users even after they transition away from the current service demographic (e.g. they graduate, they grow up and don't think MySpace is "cool" any more etc.)

Any group of 60 million adults was previously composed of 60 million teens and before that 60 million kids. It may be that the cheapest way to build an ongoing (marketing) relationship with a massive number of adult consumers is to reach them when it's still (relatively) easy i.e. when coolness, viral word of mouth etc. does most of the marketing for you - in other words, when they're YOUNG - then cement that relationship over years and then decades.

NameAlot.com · Mar 28, 2006

Any group of 60 million adults was previously composed of 60 million teens and before that 60 million kids. It may be that the cheapest way to build an ongoing (marketing) relationship with a massive number of adult consumers is to reach them when it's still (relatively) easy i.e. when coolness, viral word of mouth etc. does most of the marketing for you - in other words, when they're YOUNG - then cement that relationship over years and then decades.

Possibly one of the most constructive comments I've seen on this forum.On top of that I would like to add that perhaps it is not worth 2b$ but for it to go into the billion $ range means that there is a plan behind it. People/entities with that kind of money do not spend it with out a plan. The type of plan that Edwin has mentioned fits the mindset of these kinds of spenders.

GT Web · Mar 28, 2006

dsturbed said:
GT You have a knack for calling others stupid when they merely voice their opinions! You've done it numerous times - please STFU unless you have something constructive to add. I will be sure to show you the same respect.

I listened to the specifics. Ive done a little due dilligence on the site, I still stand by my opinion

Best,
Anthony

Opinions can be wrong...take yours for example.

As I said, you have no idea about the SPECIFICS of the site. What happens if it's currently making $1 million per day?

I am just being real, it was an interesting topic you brought up, but you gave an ill-informed opinion of it.

And don't tell me to STFU when I'm voicing my opinion...hypocrit.

Beachie · Mar 29, 2006

Edwin said:
The buyers must also have a way or be planning to find a way to maintain a "relationship" with a good number of the users even after they transition away from the current service demographic (e.g. they graduate, they grow up and don't think MySpace is "cool" any more etc.)

Any group of 60 million adults was previously composed of 60 million teens and before that 60 million kids. It may be that the cheapest way to build an ongoing (marketing) relationship with a massive number of adult consumers is to reach them when it's still (relatively) easy i.e. when coolness, viral word of mouth etc. does most of the marketing for you - in other words, when they're YOUNG - then cement that relationship over years and then decades.

Exactly!

And consider that you know their age, sex, interests, established spending patterns.. Companies don't make frivolous $xxx-million offers without knowing the income, and income potential.

mike031 · Mar 29, 2006

2b is a lot of money, but so is 750m... who knows what this people are thinking but...uhhh, cpm advertising is still alive and kicking... this is how you introduce new products/brands, gain recognition, etc.

the site is very popular so it's definitely a good buy, but is it a good deal...hard to say without the specifics as mentioned already... and this media giants have been publicizing their interest in certain sites so of course all the site operators/owners of this social networks have doubled/tripled asking prices.

2006 is proving to be a hell of a year!

SouthernTn · Mar 29, 2006

They must be making a KILLING! to turn down 750M.. Probably trying to become Billionaires

hugegrowth · Mar 29, 2006

Lots of repeat visitors = you can market whatever you want to them, advertise whatever you want, you have all their email addresses and personal information, you may be able to sell this information to other companies by interest group (e.g.: people interested in music, travel, art, movies, etc.), you don't even have to advertise when there are so many members, because the existing members keep pulling in new people. With a popular networking site they get a huge amount of repeat perpetual traffic, it's like a one-time cost for an advertising campaign that never ends.

dsturbed · Mar 30, 2006

Flikr put together what's being dubbed as logo2.0 - A nice breakdown of all the social networking sites to come:

http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=101793494&size=o