it
seems like
forever, really — the tech world has been fixed on finding how much the biggest social network, Facebook, is worth.
If you assurance the valuations at SecondMarket, an online exchange for trading with contrarily illiquid assets, Facebook is currently account about $41 billion, Businessweek has abstruse from a antecedent accustomed with the matter.
Back in 2007, Facebook was said to be account $15 billion; its appraisal “dropped” to a “meager” $3.7 billion at recession’s peak, but it has risen unstoppably anytime since.
In September, the Financial Times said Facebook was account $33 billion, which meant it was bigger than eBay, a about traded aggregation that was afresh admired at $32 billion. Now, with a $41 billion valuation, Facebook is already afresh binding over eBay, which is currently admired at $39.3 billion.
Of course, all these numbers and valuations that are befuddled about accept one affair in accepted — they’re not real. Yes, Facebook is one of the hottest technology companies around, and, yes, afresh it’s been assuming solid business results. But the accepted appraisal is beneath anxious with the business ancillary of things — eBay’s revenue, for example, is accepted to top $9 billion this year — and added with expectations, which alpha about at Facebook added accretion its huge user abject and accretion ad sales, and end at added than 1 billion users and apple dominance.
Unrealistic? Who knows. Risky? Definitely: one only needs to look back at MySpace and how quickly it fell from a social networking powerhouse to a has-been. You can trust the current Facebook valuations on SecondMarket, and if you’re feeling really bullish about social networking and Facebook’s future, feel free to raise the bar even higher. But have in mind that only after Facebook goes through with an IPO, the market will determine its value. Until then, its valuations are mostly speculation
