Lots of data and commentary came out about Facebook these past few days. One set concerns the membership base. Here, the worry is about peaking membership numbers and an aging user base. Not only seem older users be more interested in Facebook than before but younger ones appear to disengage with it.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2013/05/contradictions-about-facebook/
Today’s 8pm News on French TV reviewed the evolution of Facebook’s stock price – an interesting move from a rather ‘business unfriendly’ medium. Or was it, maybe, jealousy the motivating factor? “See those 20-year billionaires in the US; their success is all bogus….”
Putting media bias aside, it is hard not to wonder about the steadily declining stock price of Facebook.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/08/facebooks-stock-price/
With the Facebook IPO muddle, will money stop flowing to social media? Will the social media space stop consolidating (no more Instagram-like deals?) because the social media giants’ acquisition currency, their stock, has been devalued? Will the best entrepreneurs reconsider their social media ideas; put them on the back burner; be unable to fund them?… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/06/end-of-social/
Facebook has just acquired the maker of the iPhone application Instagram, which lets users do simple photo editing and sharing with friends, including social-network functions such as “like” and comments. The application itself is in no way complex enough to explain the $1 Billion price (even the valuation of the company on Feb 2., $30 million, would be a rich price for such application).… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/04/instagram-for-1-billion-what-is-it-really-worth/
My colleague, Hernan Bruno did a great job (see http://blog.insead.edu/2012/02/what-does-a-100bn-valuation-for-facebook-mean/) estimating Facebook’s value from data broadly available on the company as well as sensible assumptions about growth, retention, discount rates and other relevant parameters. The calculation is simple and considers wide and reasonable intervals.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/02/facebooks-value-again/
If you follow financial or technology news, you’ve probably already read plenty of stories about Facebook going public. You know about all the Facebook millionaire (or billionaire!) employees, its financials, its mission to “connect” the world, and the unusual degree of control that Mark Zuckerberg will hold.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/02/what-does-a-100bn-valuation-for-facebook-mean/
It is quite remarquable to see Facebook on the front page of The Economist. As usual there is some good data presented on Facebook’s crazy growth over the last 5 years. The simple explanation provided for this success is ‘network effects’, which are well-known for creating market dominance by only one leading firm (the so-called ‘winner-take-all’ outcome).… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/02/facebook-on-the-economists-frontpage/
It is a misconception that the dominant businesses of Silicon Valley are technology companies. Sure, when you think of the venerable old names such as Intel and HP, semiconductor chips and hardware based on those chips come to mind. But just as the 1980s saw the Valley shift to software, and in the 1990s the Valley rode the internet boom, the present century has so far been about consumers and marketing.… Read more
Permanent link to this article: http://blog.insead.edu/2012/02/gafa-the-new-face-of-marketing/
