Facebook Crosses 300 Million Users. Oh Yeah, And Their Cash Flow Just Went Positive - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009...
Sep 15, 2009
from
Paul Buchheit,
Laura Norvig,
Werner Trotter,
Eiso Kant,
Chris Martin,
Krishnamoorthy,
Adewale Oshineye,
Gordon Saunders,
Kol Tregaskes,
Mike Koss,
Anne Bouey,
Mac Sharp,
Ruchira S. Datta,
Iván Abrego,
TH Schee,
Garin Kilpatrick,
OCoG of FF, Jimminy,
Jeanette Bosman,
darnell,
Ray Cromwell,
Joel Webber,
Ozgur Demir,
Tudor Bosman,
Kevin Fox,
Nimaa,
Kenton,
Private Sanjeev,
Dan Hsiao,
MG Siegler,
Casey Muller,
Pandu ● IT Optimizer,
Rob Schonberger,
Roberto Arancibia,
Roberto Bonini,
and
Benjamin Golub
liked this
"They are now cash flow positive. Yes, from this point forward, Facebook is making money."
- Bret Taylor
Oh goody.....
- Roberto Bonini
Am I the only one who feels this is sort of a Pyrrhic victory, in the sense that an incredibly enormous scale was needed to eek out a profit? It's certainly good news for the long term stability of the company however,
- Ray Cromwell
@Ray, Pyrrhic? I don't really think so. It's a sizable investment, alrite, but if they can maintain real growth without having to invest hugely again, it's a win. Long-term win, but still a win.
- Pandu ● IT Optimizer
They can't maintain current user growth much longer since the Internet population has limits, so either they have to increase engagement, decrease costs, or come up with a better monetization strategy, it just seems like inefficient to me, and and risky too since alternatives could undermine them at some point, eg Twitter
- Ray Cromwell
You mean, like changing a variable from TWEET_LIMIT = 140 to TWEET_LIMIT = 512? :) I think Facebook Lite, FriendFeed, et al have shown the value of these networks is more in communicating and following rather than social apps. F8 was a great attention getter than separated FB from the pack, but outside of some games, it has taken a backseat to FF/Twitter-like functionality IMHO. And I think the games industry would be better served by a social platform tuned towards the needs of games anyway.
- Ray Cromwell
Plus, by combining WebFinger, PubSubHubBub, FOAF/XFN, and some other stuff, you might be able to totally federate the bulk of what FB and Twitter do today, commoditizing them and stripping down their walled gardens. That's the looming threat.
- Ray Cromwell
A good example of FB's cost reducing efforts is "haystack". Don't worry, we are working on it (:
- Ozgur Demir
Haystack looks cool. Maybe if FB could connect with third party oauth'ed photo hosting, they could leave the photos on those services shouldering them with the costs, while having the eyeballs of the users on their site. :)
- Ray Cromwell