Comment by Colonel Jerry USMC — May 16, 2012 @ 9:00 am
Rather than buying stock in Wastebook™, take that money, convert it into cash, save it till winter, and then burn it for heat. You’ll be better off.
GM actually got one right here. People use Facebook to tell their friends what they had/are having for dinner, chat with friends they lost interest in years ago, tell everybody how much they love Jesus whilst playing Farmville or Booga Booga Mojo Gold for 20-hours-a-day (and trying to get you hooked on it too) — but they don’t use it to buy cars with or, for that matter, very much of anything else. The whole thing is built on air. Some one will come along with a slightly better idea and that will be that. Am I the only one who remembers the internet bubble about 10 years back?
Remember Friendster? How about MySpace? Yeah, me neither. What really puzzles me, though, is businesses/corporations who already have nifty websites telling others to visit their Facebook page. Why? I don’t get it. Why water down your message and/or sales pitch?
Other than the government using it as a gigantic archive to keep watch on everybody, I don’t see much use for it.
Hmmm 100 Billion in investment, to be paid back $1billion a year. That should only take, um, a little while to get total return on investment. And what do they get for that money? infrastructure? patents? human capital? Big factories? no. They get to own a product that is only popular because it is given away for free. Great business model.
We evidently learned nothing from the 2000 crash. Hype is still worth more than substance.
I left Facebook a year ago and never looked back. Glad to know I’m not the only one puzzled by a business that makes money without producing a tangible product.
I don’t know if FB will survive or prosper…….but I can remember when I thought it would take a damn fool to invest in a ‘free’ search engine and Google has made a lot of millionaires.
If I could pick up a few shares, I’d buy.
Don’t see the attraction/addiction to FB but it is real and I’d about bet half the users would pay for it.
Joe: Facebook will survive and prosper, even if the government has to step in to make it happen. Primarily because Facebook is a massive tool for collecting peoples personal data for free, and the government is obsessed with getting into your personal life.
Comment by Caged Insanity — May 16, 2012 @ 12:29 pm
I note that one of the Facebook *Bigs* just renounced his American citizenship and moved to Singapore!!!!! Which—–don`t have no capital gains taxes, neither……. Curious, that——–
Comment by Colonel Jerry USMC — May 16, 2012 @ 1:47 pm
^ ColJ: I’m a little cautious to judge, and he certainly has a huge financial incentive; but I don’t think I could do it myself.
Of course some things in life are like battle: one doesn’t really know what one will do until there’s a chance to find out. [hee.. I'd like the chance to find out about this particular thing though]
One thing’s for sure, he hasn’t heeded the “rich should pay more” initiative that Warren Buffett has for billionaires other than his own rich self.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 3:17 pm
^^ Anybody still think that taxing the rich is gonna make the slightest difference in the national deficit?
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 3:19 pm
Ironic in Denver,
Having visited Singapore in my overseas tours in the Crotch, I think I can safely say that he/you will spend all your cash on the astoundingly sweet young ladies in that small place. (Even if the Japs are closing in from the North….)
Comment by Colonel Jerry USMC — May 16, 2012 @ 3:46 pm
As Hog said, built on air. ink on a page, electrons on a chip.
Remember aol?
fb doesn’t even provide a real product like aol did for a bit. I remember trying to teach people that aol wasn’t the internets. Same now with this huge whirlpool on the side of the great intertube river. So many good peeps caught in the maelstrom with the debris and discarded plastic bags.
What is the value lost to the world of time wasted on fb? Just look at the billions lost to business as a result of the final 4 or really big footbowl. The loss of productivity and lifetimes are nearly incalculable.
When this goes poof in a few years, lots of imaginary numbers are going to go negative and make lots of peeps very sad. Good for the ones who cash out early and buy things of value.
^ The cashing out early by those who got a sweet deal going in might start within the week.
Aside: if I were running a business with employees, I would have Facebook (and quite a few other sites) blocked from company computers & networks.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 8:07 pm
ColJ (11): I hope I’d have the fortitude to get myself some good tax lawyers, minimize my taxes, and keep my citizenship. Then when whoever the future Japs are start closing in, I can come home — or possibly well before then.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 8:11 pm
I heard that, too, Colonel Jerry. I say “Good on him!”
I’d do the same thing ‘cept for it to work ya gotta actually live in *shudder* Singapore…
Progs calling the guy “Traitor” in 3… 2…
Comment by Claire: pink pig barbarian, etc — May 16, 2012 @ 8:26 pm
Facebook will make money hand over fist.
The service they are selling is not facebook pages.
They are selling the data those pages collect.
When the service is “free”, YOU are the product being sold.
^ Kristophr, yeah, I know facebook posts can prove to be a career limiting move. I just wouldn’t want then facebooking at work.
Claire (16): Progs calling the guy “Traitor” in 3… 2… See, he’s doing it wrong. He’s supposed to say he’s leaving because he can’t breath Romney’s air. Then they will lovvvvvvvveeeeeeeee him, and he’ll save on taxes as a well deserved bonus.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 9:33 pm
Eduardo Saverin, 30, a Brazil-born resident of Singapore who helped launch Facebook with his Harvard schoolmate Mark Zuckerberg, reportedly renounced his U.S. citizenship in September before the company announced its planned initial public offering of stock.
Eduardo was 13 years old when his wealthy parents fled Brazil. It seems it was very fashionable back then to kidnap the offspring of the well-to-do. I’m sure Maria can speak to this much better than I.
My point is that he never had been instilled with a sense of patriotism for this country to begin with. He has always been aristocracy. America was just a steppingstone.
^ Sometimes I wonder if Chuck Schumer is actually an android, created by the Democratic Party to hold the seat he’s got until they can find a real human to do the job.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 18, 2012 @ 7:28 am
Uh… my liege…
“Greece Apologizes to EU With Giant Wooden Horse”
“Patsy! To horse!”
Comment by mojo — May 16, 2012 @ 8:27 am
Paid for with *wooden nickels*……………
Comment by Colonel Jerry USMC — May 16, 2012 @ 9:00 am
Rather than buying stock in Wastebook™, take that money, convert it into cash, save it till winter, and then burn it for heat. You’ll be better off.
GM actually got one right here. People use Facebook to tell their friends what they had/are having for dinner, chat with friends they lost interest in years ago, tell everybody how much they love Jesus whilst playing Farmville or Booga Booga Mojo Gold for 20-hours-a-day (and trying to get you hooked on it too) — but they don’t use it to buy cars with or, for that matter, very much of anything else. The whole thing is built on air. Some one will come along with a slightly better idea and that will be that. Am I the only one who remembers the internet bubble about 10 years back?
Remember Friendster? How about MySpace? Yeah, me neither. What really puzzles me, though, is businesses/corporations who already have nifty websites telling others to visit their Facebook page. Why? I don’t get it. Why water down your message and/or sales pitch?
Other than the government using it as a gigantic archive to keep watch on everybody, I don’t see much use for it.
Comment by Hog Whitman — May 16, 2012 @ 10:21 am
Hmmm 100 Billion in investment, to be paid back $1billion a year. That should only take, um, a little while to get total return on investment. And what do they get for that money? infrastructure? patents? human capital? Big factories? no. They get to own a product that is only popular because it is given away for free. Great business model.
We evidently learned nothing from the 2000 crash. Hype is still worth more than substance.
Comment by Professor Hale — May 16, 2012 @ 10:22 am
I left Facebook a year ago and never looked back. Glad to know I’m not the only one puzzled by a business that makes money without producing a tangible product.
Comment by Paul Moore — May 16, 2012 @ 11:09 am
I don’t know if FB will survive or prosper…….but I can remember when I thought it would take a damn fool to invest in a ‘free’ search engine and Google has made a lot of millionaires.
If I could pick up a few shares, I’d buy.
Don’t see the attraction/addiction to FB but it is real and I’d about bet half the users would pay for it.
Comment by joe — May 16, 2012 @ 12:12 pm
Joe: Facebook will survive and prosper, even if the government has to step in to make it happen. Primarily because Facebook is a massive tool for collecting peoples personal data for free, and the government is obsessed with getting into your personal life.
Comment by Caged Insanity — May 16, 2012 @ 12:29 pm
I note that one of the Facebook *Bigs* just renounced his American citizenship and moved to Singapore!!!!! Which—–don`t have no capital gains taxes, neither……. Curious, that——–
Comment by Colonel Jerry USMC — May 16, 2012 @ 1:47 pm
^ ColJ: I’m a little cautious to judge, and he certainly has a huge financial incentive; but I don’t think I could do it myself.
Of course some things in life are like battle: one doesn’t really know what one will do until there’s a chance to find out. [hee.. I'd like the chance to find out about this particular thing though]
One thing’s for sure, he hasn’t heeded the “rich should pay more” initiative that Warren Buffett has for billionaires other than his own rich self.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 3:17 pm
^^ Anybody still think that taxing the rich is gonna make the slightest difference in the national deficit?
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 3:19 pm
Ironic in Denver,
Having visited Singapore in my overseas tours in the Crotch, I think I can safely say that he/you will spend all your cash on the astoundingly sweet young ladies in that small place. (Even if the Japs are closing in from the North….)
Comment by Colonel Jerry USMC — May 16, 2012 @ 3:46 pm
As Hog said, built on air. ink on a page, electrons on a chip.
Remember aol?
fb doesn’t even provide a real product like aol did for a bit. I remember trying to teach people that aol wasn’t the internets. Same now with this huge whirlpool on the side of the great intertube river. So many good peeps caught in the maelstrom with the debris and discarded plastic bags.
What is the value lost to the world of time wasted on fb? Just look at the billions lost to business as a result of the final 4 or really big footbowl. The loss of productivity and lifetimes are nearly incalculable.
When this goes poof in a few years, lots of imaginary numbers are going to go negative and make lots of peeps very sad. Good for the ones who cash out early and buy things of value.
Comment by mech — May 16, 2012 @ 4:13 pm
^ The cashing out early by those who got a sweet deal going in might start within the week.
Aside: if I were running a business with employees, I would have Facebook (and quite a few other sites) blocked from company computers & networks.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 8:07 pm
ColJ (11): I hope I’d have the fortitude to get myself some good tax lawyers, minimize my taxes, and keep my citizenship. Then when whoever the future Japs are start closing in, I can come home — or possibly well before then.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 8:11 pm
I heard that, too, Colonel Jerry. I say “Good on him!”
I’d do the same thing ‘cept for it to work ya gotta actually live in *shudder* Singapore…
Progs calling the guy “Traitor” in 3… 2…
Comment by Claire: pink pig barbarian, etc — May 16, 2012 @ 8:26 pm
Facebook will make money hand over fist.
The service they are selling is not facebook pages.
They are selling the data those pages collect.
When the service is “free”, YOU are the product being sold.
Comment by Kristophr — May 16, 2012 @ 8:30 pm
Ironic: Employers love facebook.
It allows HR to weed out nutters, and folks they just don’t want working for them.
Comment by Kristophr — May 16, 2012 @ 8:33 pm
^ Kristophr, yeah, I know facebook posts can prove to be a career limiting move. I just wouldn’t want then facebooking at work.
Claire (16): Progs calling the guy “Traitor” in 3… 2… See, he’s doing it wrong. He’s supposed to say he’s leaving because he can’t breath Romney’s air. Then they will lovvvvvvvveeeeeeeee him, and he’ll save on taxes as a well deserved bonus.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 16, 2012 @ 9:33 pm
Eduardo Saverin, 30, a Brazil-born resident of Singapore who helped launch Facebook with his Harvard schoolmate Mark Zuckerberg, reportedly renounced his U.S. citizenship in September before the company announced its planned initial public offering of stock.
Eduardo was 13 years old when his wealthy parents fled Brazil. It seems it was very fashionable back then to kidnap the offspring of the well-to-do. I’m sure Maria can speak to this much better than I.
My point is that he never had been instilled with a sense of patriotism for this country to begin with. He has always been aristocracy. America was just a steppingstone.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/05/facebooks-eduardo-saverin-joins-americans-renouncing-citizenship/
Comment by Spin — May 17, 2012 @ 2:31 am
Spin (19): hmm…. this isn’t really the same as native born or whatever….
But now Chuck Schumer has found a solution to this obvious lack of patriotism.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/senators-to-unveil-the-ex-patriot-act-to-respond-to-facebooks-saverins-tax-scheme/
See, told you he should have said it was about not wanting to breath Romney air.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 17, 2012 @ 8:04 am
^It’s almost like Chuck Schumer is blowing smoke up our asses. I doubt this poser fooled many, butt then again…
Comment by Spin — May 17, 2012 @ 5:59 pm
^ Sometimes I wonder if Chuck Schumer is actually an android, created by the Democratic Party to hold the seat he’s got until they can find a real human to do the job.
Comment by Ironic in Denver — May 18, 2012 @ 7:28 am