The Value of Friendship

by Mike Coates
FBP

You no doubt have heard that Facebook has made application with the US Securities Exchange Commission to go public and list their shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).  It is anticipated that the company will go public in early spring 2012.


Stock market analysts are predicting that Facebook's debut will witness the largest stock offering in the history of the world. It's value could skyrocket to $75 - $100 billion dollars making it larger than many corporate giants and making many of its 3,200 employees millionaires.

Who could imagine that just eight years ago Facebook didn't exist and that a simple idea by Facebook's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg to create a platform where his fellow students at Harvard could connect would explode into a 825m following.

And imagine a web site where "each day 250m photos are uploaded and where one out of every seven minutes spent online is on Facebook, according to comScore a research firm."

Facebook is a marketer's dream come true. For the first time marketers can customize products and services to Facebook subscribers who have volunteered their personal information.

This free disclosure of personal information, has allowed marketers to go from shotgun marketing to sniper marketing facilitated by GPS. As someone said when it comes to being dectected by a marketer "you can run but you can no longer hide."

It is no wonder that the CIA, FBI, RCMP, CISIS and other government organizations regularly use Facebook to gather information on individuals, their families and friends.

I am certain that George Orwell, had he been alive today, would be saying "I told you so!"

Source: The Economist, The Value of Friendship, February 4, 2012