The Facebook juggernaut
Already valued at about $43 billion, the company is generating revenue of over $2 billion:
Revenue will more than double from 2009, said the people, who declined to be identified because the privately held company doesn’t disclose revenue. Facebook had $700 million to $800 million in sales last year, and the 2010 figure was previously expected to be closer to $1.5 billion, according to two other people familiar with the matter earlier this year.
Facebook’s more than half a billion users have made it an attractive target for advertisers, including Coca-Cola Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Adidas AG. In October, Facebook surpassed Yahoo! Inc. when ranked by the number of global users, making it No. 3 behind Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., according to ComScore Inc., a research firm in Reston, Virginia.
“The love affair of consumers with social networks is an abiding one, so it’s not going to go away,” said Karsten Weide, an analyst with IDC in San Mateo, California. “All the big brands are there.”
Although I’m on Facebook, I’m not the biggest fan. I see the practicality of some of the more practical information-sharing uses for businesses. But unless I’m a beneficary of some of that hefty ad revenue, seeing my “friends” lame and idiotic status updates just irritates me.
Who’s talking…