Dan Frommer over at SplatF decided to figure out how diversified today's top technology companies are. There's a thousand ways to slice and splice the sort of data he uses, so his results can certainly be debated, but he exercises a simple method that works well enough: which companies draw the highest percentage of their revenue from a single product or service?
LinkedIn is known as the major "professional network" with its focus on business, resumes, and the like. Twitter is the fast-paced microblogging platform that's all about real-time content. And Facebook is the world's largest social network with over 800 million active users. So which is best for recruiting?
According to "definitive data" from Bullhorn, the "clear leader" is LinkedIn. Analyzing online activity data from 35,000 recruiters, Bullhorn discovered that LinkedIn recruiting efforts manage to drive more views than Facebook and Twitter combined. In a report titled “The Bullhorn Reach Social Recruiting Activity Report," research revealed that LinkedIn drives nine times more job applications than Facebook and three times more than Twitter.
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Is Facebook worth $100 billion? I doubt it.
Facebook generated over $3.1 billion dollars in advertising revenue in 2011 from their display ads and 80% of additional revenue from Farmville creator Zynga (although they try to say it's 12% of overall revenue). But they write in their SEC filing:
"We believe that our rates of user and revenue growth will decline over time. For example, our annual revenue grew 154% from 2009 to 2010 and 88% from 2010 to 2011. Historically, our user growth has been a primary driver of growth in our revenue. Our user growth and revenue growth rates will inevitably slow as we achieve higher market penetration rates, as our revenue increases to higher levels, and as we experience increased competition."
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Firing off a tweet or status update is not unlike smoking a cigarette, new research suggests. According to a study conducted by the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, social media may be just as addictive as cigarettes and alcohol.
Over 200 subjects delivered more than 8,000 reports and the results were clear: the toughest urge to resist was to check social networks online. Now, it wasn't the most desired activity—sleep and sex overpowered lust for tweeting—but many of the subjects actually had more trouble resisting the urge to social network than ignoring their desires for booze and smokes.
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So Facebook has filed for its IPO, tons of people are going to get crazy rich, blah blah blah. But not everything is sugar and spice on the Facebook front: it needs to fix its mobile problem, and fast.
Most companies have a mobile problem: not getting enough active users. This isn't Facebook's problem. Mark Zuckerberg's social network has tons of them—well over 400 million, in fact. The problem is that these mobile users don't deliver a dime to Facebook, and may actually be harming the company's balance sheet by eroding web traffic, where monetization is well established.
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Now that the world's largest social network has finally filed for an initial public offering, the dust can settle and the media frenzy can die down. Right?
Hardly. From now until May, when Facebook is expected to actually debut on the market, count on everyone and their dog to be talking about it. All the time. Experts will ponder: will the stock go up, down, sideways, or loop-the-loop? Analysts will debate: will Mark Zuckerberg be praised as a hero or mocked as a fool? And your loony neighbour will continue to pester you with stupid questions on your wall: will monkeys rule the Earth?
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Facebook's origin is mired in controversy. The Winklevoss Twins have long claimed that Harvard University dropout Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea; Mark has always claimed he was working on "TheFacebook" before the school seniors ever asked him to code their dating site.
Eight years later, some telling instant messaging conversations have been leaked, preserved by the courts due to lawsuits. One is a chat between a 19-year-old Zuck and Adam D'Angelo, the first Facebook chief technology officer (he left in 2008 to co-found Quora). Through the dialogue, you catch a glimpse of Mark's internal debate - does he build the Winklevoss' dating site or focus on TheFacebook?
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The world's largest social network, Facebook, is going to file for an Initial Public Offering this coming Wednesday, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Citing unnamed sources, the reputable WSJ says a $10 billion share offering would place Facebook's valuation at $100 billion.
A group of engineers has built a bookmarklet that redirects Google's new social search to results that include all social networks—including Twitter, Tumblr, and even MySpace—versus just Google+. Led by Facebook developer Blake Ross, the plugin is called "Don't Be Evil"—Google's now controversial mantra—and is hosted on a website called "Focus on the User," another jab at Google's seemingly corrupt philosophy.
It's clear through the first 60 Timeline apps that Facebook wants you to auto-share absolutely everything. For the fear of those who haven't complied with Facebook's request to activate Timeline, it'll be forced upon you eventually. Some of Timeline's apps include the ever popular Oodle, Yahoo News, Causes, Flixster, The Washington Post Social, Pinterest and more. You can check out what your friends are using by clicking here.
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