Facebook STILL no profit..

Although it is valued at a supposed $10 billion.. it is STILL yet to turn a profit.

But now Facebook is getting a $200 million investment from a Russian Internet man. 

The $10 billion valuation for Facebook is less then the $15 billion value implied in 2007 when Microsoft spent $240 million for a 1.6% stake in the company – even though Facebook has grown substantially since then.  However, Facebooks’ own appraisal after the Microsoft deal gave the company a market value of $3.7 billion according to details revealed in a legal settlement.

The latest investment, in preferred stock, does not necessarily compare with what the company’s common shares would be worth on the open market.  That would only be determined if the company were to go public, which is likely a ways off.

Facebook now counts 200 million users, 70% whom live outside the U.S.

As a private company, Facebook does not disclose financial details and it does not even have a chief financial officer.  The company claims that it is profitable by one measure- earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA- for the past 5 quarters.   The company is supposedly expecting to generate cash flow in 2010.

It is crazy that people are having such a hard time figuring out how to make money on Facebook.  Is it really that tough?  They are thinking of little ideas like little users send tiny virtual $1 gifts to each other.. really? weird..?  I am sure it will all get figured out one of these days.  Maybe a mixture between facebook & simcity where you have a virtual/real world that you are painting for yourself rather then the super fake worlds that are out there now.  People pay for video game type things.  Maybe that is the way to go.  Who knows but I think in a few more years someone at Facebook is going to figure it out.

Woman’s Laptop, Drunk’s Career Saved by Facebook

Carla Pillo Monte an executive director at a Philadelphia advertising agency, used Facebook stalking skills to track down the drunk guy who stole her laptop, tax files, and wallet. Too much information is a good thing!

Everything ended happily — including for the drunk guy, a financial planner whose career might have been ruined had Mote pressed charges. AgencySpy has the long, convoluted tale of how Mote and a friend tracked down the thief at his apartment building and witnessed him piss himself as she reclaimed her belongings. It’s a story best told in status updates:

Article found on ValleyWay tweet

Facebook and the Downsides of Software As a Service

The tizzy created by Facebook’s page design changes point out some valuable lessons that we should keep in mind as we head more into a SaaS and cloud-based world.

1. Choosing when to change

There are lots of differences between how shrink-wrapped applications and software as a service (SaaS) work, but one of them is that customers of shrink-wrapped software choose when, and if, they upgrade. They kick the tires to look around at the changes beforehand, download a trial, poll other users, wait for the .1 rev and the kinks to get worked out.

With SaaS, changes get pushed out without those wait-and-see possibilities. Facebook is discovering that this can lead to unpleasant surprises for customers, who have no say in whether they want to adopt them right then.

When something is embedded into the flow of everyday life in the way that Facebook (or Twitter) is for many people, any change, whether it’s ultimately better or worse, is going to cause complaint. People get used to patterns of doing things. Even when you change their work-arounds sometimes they don’t like it.

2. Conversation is a double-edged sword

Having said that, on the flip side, SaaS is more responsive when there is feedback. It can turn around updates based on input more quickly, and obviously more universally. But do this too often and you whiplash your users with multiple changes that set and unset particular features, preferences, design decisions, and so on.

Facebook is going to have to tread carefully in the coming weeks as it decides how to respond to the considerable complaining  about the new layout. Facebook is quite different than most “applications” because there are such a variety of ways that people use it, and the experiences that each user has are going to be quite different. (All the more so because of the openness of the platform.) That makes it hard to design for, and all the more important to check one’s assumptions at the door about what people want to do with it, and what features will support those needs.

On a more macro scale, Facebook (and SaaS in general) are emblematic of the more two-way relationship that now exists between companies and customers. The real-time nature of the conversation, and with something like Facebook the ability of customers to vocalize and organize, is a precursor to what the majority of companies will have to deal with in the future. As the  “Cluetrain Manifesto” presciently argued, all markets are going to be more conversational in the future.

3. Don’t design by committee

But that doesn’t mean everything should turn into design by (user) committee, or tyranny of the majority. That’s not how excellent products get made. There has to be a balance between responding to feedback, and recognizing when you see possibilities that your users, for the time being, do not. Your job as a designer and a company is to create capabilities on their behalf, and not just implement exactly what users ask for. (Not in a high-handed way; users’ needs and best interests should always be the focus.)

(It so happens that we had a very lively e-mail thread running around the frog offices about this exact topic recently. Do you stick to the vision or respond to feedback by changing the vision? The answer: “It depends.” Not very satisfactory perhaps, but unfortunately basically true. There are well-known examples of hits and flops based on both approaches.)

Watch what happens…

We should all be watching very carefully how Facebook acts in the coming weeks as it responds to the conversation. It will undoubtedly provide lessons for the future for all of us.

Article found on CRN.com…

Google Docs Hit with BUG & Facebook Photos Lost

Google Docs users were affected by a security bug during the weekend that allowed unauthorized viewers access to private files.  Google said that it was a glitch that resulted in a privacy issue that allowed some documents to be inadvertly shared with unauthorized viewers.. Well Great.  Hopefully none of you put your more important documents on that thing & assume no one will get to them.. oh dear.   Google said that it was a “small percentage of users”.  Not sure what that exactly means..

Also!! Did you  hear about Facebook loosing over 10% of their photos in a hard drive failure!  Double oh my!

http://cwflyris.computerworld.com/t/4518511/3 6127338/174174/0/

Does Social Media make us better people?

We are tracked everywhere these days..  Writing on walls, status updates etc make private conversations public.  Tools that open up the possibility that whether in a public space or sending a seemingly private text message it is being logged & shared with 239483249032432 people.

How does this change the way we act?  May it make us nice to one another.????!??

Time Spent On Facebook

more music charts

Facebook and Boob Protest

Sorry, no picture for this post..  So did you hear about this?  A group of moms staged a protest outside Facebook’s Palo Alto office yesterday over the site’s policy to remove photos of bare breasts.   Facebook’spolicy is to remove photos where the nipple or areola is visible.  Attendees of the MILC (Mothers International Lactation Campaign) “nurse is” want an exception for breastfeeding moms..

What..?  Seriously..

Heather Farley is the organizer of the “nurse in” outside Facebook’s office to change its policy & here is her open letter to the company this weekend.

Dear Facebook,

My name is Heather Farley and I am coordinating the nurse-in that will occur this Saturday. I have been using Facebook since February 2005 when Facebook was very small and young. I really enjoy using Facebook and being able to connect with friends and family easily. I think this service that Facebook has offered millions of Internet users is invaluable. However, I am upset about Facebook’s recent actions.

I wanted to outline the reasoning and purpose of the nurse-in. As you know, the group, “Hey Facebook, Breastfeeding isn’t obscene (Official Petition to Facebook)” is where this event was organized. Perhaps it seems strange to you that such a “small” issue might have so much attention. I wanted to highlight the impact that the removal of breastfeeding pictures has.

On one hand, it is a public health issue. For many years, the World Health Organization has emphasized the need for mothers to breastfeed and has set minimum standards that many countries, including the United States, still have yet to meet. They have set these standards to help prevent the significant number of deaths of infants in our world. By removing pictures of breastfeeding, the message is sent that it is something shameful, something that should be hidden and not seen. This can undermine the confidence and desire of future mothers to breastfeed their children, to the detriment of their children’s health.

On the other hand, it is an issue of discrimination against breastfeeding mothers. Like issues such as pregnancy, breastfeeding discrimination is a gender issue. When pictures are removed of breastfeeding and not of artificial feeding, breastfeeding mothers are being discriminated against and a wrongful double standard is set. After all, a bottle is simply a plastic, prosthetic disembodied breast in size, form, and function. Additionally, many groups such as the Ontario Human Rights Commission have stated that breastfeeding right issues are human rights issues and that discrimination against a breastfeeding mother is discrimination of her rights.

It is also a public relations and customer service issue. There are more than 60,000 people in the group, “Hey Facebook…” The statements that Facebook does not plan on considering changing the policies about breastfeeding images gives the impression that the opinion of those 60,000 Facebook users is unimportant and inconsequential. However, 60,000 people are not inconsequential and Facebook’s reply of no action may in the future result in the loss of Facebook users and customers.

I do understand that Facebook needs to prevent and eliminate pornography on the site. It might not appear possible to have a user agreement that disallows sexually explicit pictures while allowing pictures of mothers breastfeeding. I want to suggest that this is possible- and such a user agreement is my goal in this nurse-in. I would like Facebook to change their policy to something resembling, “photos containing nudity, drug use, or other obscene content are not allowed, except in the case of a mother nursing a child.” If Facebook added such a clause, pornographic and sexually explicit images could be removed without discrimination occurring towards mothers and babies.

I hope that Facebook will reconsider their position and listen to this group of 60,000, for the benefit of babies and for the rights of mothers.

Personally I am a fan of boob feeding..  but seriously, this mom wants Facebook to change their policy to “Photos where the nipple or areola is visible is NOT allowed except for when breastfeeding.”..  Well…. this holds a personal tune to me because I recently weened my one year old from my boob & while the struggles to finally get my toddler to use a cup rather then a nipple, I got many comments from people talking about how they know someone who breast fed their toddler until they were  (clinch)”6,5,12″ years old.  So if Facebook were to change its policy, which I highly doubt, are they going to put an age requirement?    “Photos where the nipple and aerota is in view except when breastfeeding a baby under the age of 6 months..?”  Is it really appropriate to have a 12 year old breastfeeding a big boob broad-casted on Facebook?  And REALLY is it really necessary to have ANY pictures of moms boob feeding their babies on facebook to help promote breastfeed??!?  Those 60,000 members of her crazy group “Hey Facebook..” are only members because they think it is funny & completly absurd..  These nutty moms with their crazy boob movements give other normal boob feeding moms a bad rep and can definitely turn off breast feeding, which of course, is the opposite of their cause.

Oh Facebook & social technology.. what is this world coming to?

Facebook at work?

Good or bad?

There are many personal benefits of facebook at work.. time goes by quicker, keeping track of long lost buddies, seeing what your friends are up to, entertainment etc….

But is it really a good idea to allow your users to access Facebook while working?  Allowing them to spend time thinking of creative ways to update their status,  upload family and friend photos, endless stream of personal email chains, happy birthday notes, adding green patches, becoming Cubs fans.. .etc??

I know that many companies allow it, mostly sales companies that want their sales people to increase their social network, sales etc.  Ok I get it.  But do the numbers really match up?  Facebook is addicting & can be very time consuming.  

Here is one of my typical facebook experience, after I have emailed all of the friends that have sent emails and responded to the instant messages online.  Who is that old college room mate with the blonde hair.. what’s her name..? She was really fun.. Maybe Katie has her in her friend profile.. no not there.. Oh! But Yasmin is there! I miss her too!  I’ll friend Yasmin.. what has she been up to?  Oh! And that reminds me of an ex-boyfriend.  I wonder what he is up to..  Ok 45 min later.. I am sure my experience is not too unique.

Seriously this can go on  & on.  Personally I think Facebook should not be used in a traditional work place environment.   There is plenty of time to poke people, write long emails, work on your facebook garden..? Or whatever facebook pleasures you have after work hours.  But that is just my opinion.  If you have an opinion on the matter please jump in and comment.

Facebook Destroys Lucrative Birthday Reminder Industry

Facebook just added another extremely useful feature for users, and in doing so took out a slew of applicaitions that do that same thing. You can now get a weekly email telling you, simply, which friends have birthdays coming up.

Lest you think this is just some random feature: Birthdays are big business. Bebo founders Michael and Xochi Birch started their social network Bebo with a simple birthday reminder service. That service had 100 million users at one point and still brings in $4 million per year in revenue from ecards and gift purchases. Bebo was funded in the early days from birthday reminder revenue.

It sucks to be one of the very many birthday reminder Facebook apps today. Such is life. With a flick of the keyboard Facebook can make your app redundant and pointless. 

CrunchNetwork