Facebook takes $25 million, Acquisition Rumors Persist

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1. Daniel P Dykes, Rogue Connect
   

   April 19th, 2006 at 2:36 am

   Big numbers there, I’d love to know exactly what Greylock Partners will be getting in return!

2. Dimitar Vesselinov
   

   April 19th, 2006 at 3:39 am

   Facebook should go international.

3. scott
   

   April 19th, 2006 at 4:35 am

   Every year, Facebook gets “85%” of all those new freshmen to join. What people don’t realize is that many alumni use Facebook after college as they did in college. So the growth is inievitable and constant.

4. Fortino
   

   April 19th, 2006 at 5:33 am

   Hey #4…that’s all well and good but what does facebook get out of that?

   Not one of their members has ever spent a dime with FB.

5. The Entrepreneurial Endeavor
   

   April 19th, 2006 at 6:10 am

   Actually scott, eventhough alumni use the site, they use it less as time goes on. So when a new freshman class comes in a huge part of that growth is offset by the declining use of the alumni.

6. Timothy Li
   

   April 19th, 2006 at 6:30 am

   question for #3

   can FB handle the Chinese market? =)

7. Dimitar Vesselinov
   

   April 19th, 2006 at 7:02 am

   Timothy, I have one word for you: partnerships, partnerships, partnerships…If I would want to enter in China, I would talk to the big local players. Sohu, Sina, Baidu, Alibaba…I would form a subsidiary in Honk Kong and I would licence my service.

8. Dimitar Vesselinov
   

   April 19th, 2006 at 7:14 am

   I have meant Hong Kong:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong

9. Brian Breslin
   

   April 19th, 2006 at 7:44 am

   If this is an indicator of them losing money, then they need to figure out where to monetize that traffic.
   There have to be some smart people working there, someone should be able to figure it out.
   College kids spend tons of money, they should be able to get some of that.

10. Saul Weiner
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 7:47 am

    I agree with Dimitar. Facebook should go international. The wave is just beginning in Europe.

11. Ashish
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 8:10 am

    Interesting that they needed more capital, hopefully for a large new development rather than a cash injection to keep operating.

    As an alumni, I rarely use the site, mainly because of the large college audience. I also heard from a friend that works at Facebook that the prior acquisition rumors (especially the request for $2B) were false.

12. Cheapstingybastard
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 8:14 am

    As long as the traffic is there, they will figure out a way to monetize it. These days, traffic does = money!

13. Sumon
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 8:34 am

    As a recent college alum i use the site to keep in touch with classmates who have spread out all over the world. For those that are using it day in day out while at college the value of keeping in touch will be pretty high and hence they will continue to use facebook when they leave as often as they did while at college. On the otherhand, less recent alums have no incentive to use facebook. Considering the rate of people leaving college = the rate of intake, providing facebook can monitize its user base it will continue to grow.

    Facebook is introducing new ways of monetizing traffic: for example advertising student events via “facebook flyers” cost $5 per 10,000 views. With facebook’s spread across campus such schemes do present a cheap, targetted and highly effective way of reaching the college population as well as a surefire way to increase its revenue.

14. Mike Hogan
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 11:15 am

    Facebook has aggregated a huge market and there are any number of ways to monetize them. They talk about local advertising, for example. What college student wouldn’t want online coupons for local pizza places, clubs, events, clothing, cellphones, bookstores, coffee shops, etc. [at the risk of a shameles plug] By adding ZiXXo coupons they could drive tremendous revenue. But there are a number of other ways they could monetize this traffi.

15. Daniele Levy
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 11:25 am

    WowDoes anyone know what the valuation was?

16. Eric Willis
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 12:13 pm

    THE HALF-A-BILLION-DOLLAR KID

    SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — This startup thing sure beats sitting in
    class.

    Mark Zuckerberg, who started the Facebook — essentially an online
    student directory — while he was a sophomore at Harvard in 2004 — just
    received funding for quite a nice valuation. Zuckerberg, as many of my
    readers might recall, left Harvard to become an entrepreneur.

    Facebook, which now has more than 7 million registered users, recently
    received $25 million in venture funding from Greylock Partners, of San
    Mateo.

    The valuation for the private firm was $550 million, a source close to
    the deal told me.

    Viacom Inc. (VIA) offered Facebook $750 million for the entire company
    earlier this year, according to the source. For Facebook’s right to
    maintain its independence, a half billion dollar valuation is just fine.
    What does that say about Internet valuations? They remain high.

    If we also compare Facebook’s valuation and MySpace’s valuation, and
    the number of registered members each site had at the time they received
    valuations, it appears that prices are going up.

    Last year, on July 18, News Corp (NWS) announced that it purchased
    MySpace for $580 million in cash. At the time, MySpace said it had 18.5
    million members from the coveted 16-to-34-year-old demographic group.
    Facebook has about a third of that registered user base, but received
    about the same amount of money. Facebook’s valuation certainly makes
    News Corp purchase appear relatively reasonable.

    Suffice it to say, it’s a good time to be an entrepreneur.

    And, for Mark, who will turn 22 next month, it’s a nice way to
    celebrate his birthday. Maybe his staff of 100 — mostly 20-somethings,
    will throw him a party.

17. Joy
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 12:42 pm

    Facebook is fine as is. I like the simplicity of the concept and it lets me keep in touch with friends. I am hoping to use this as an address book and communication tool long after I have left college as long as the users update their personal details..

    I don’t know if college students are demanding more additions to the service because I am content now. I wish they expand to cover the rest of the world. Now, that would be the one thing I want.

18. MrRabin
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 2:34 pm

    Even if they hold students post college, don’t they just get one year at at time? So it would take 10 years to get just the under 30 market.

    Also, why is Friendster bigger than them on Alexa. I thought they were gone?

19. skibare
    

    April 19th, 2006 at 5:24 pm

    with FaceBook growing so fast and VIDEO coming online, FB will need MORE than the 25 million to thrive!
    http://www.WeSkiFree.com

20. Sabrina Mary
    

    September 18th, 2006 at 12:26 am

    Does anyone knows where I could look for:Timothy Fu?

21. Sabrina Mary
    

    September 18th, 2006 at 12:28 am

    Hi,guys!