back to article Facebook rattling tin in Dubai?

As more and more people spend their time uploading digital narcissism to Facebook, the uber-social networking site seems to have burned through its Microsoft-juiced funding much quicker than expected. According to sources whispering in the ears of Michael Arrington, Facebook is "testing" the capital markets again - despite …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    and soon it will be time to get a business model

    Wonder how they will eventually make some money!

  2. JC

    @ and soon it will be time

    advertising space of course, didn't you know the entire world is Google's billboard?

  3. Henry Wertz Gold badge

    Time to get a business model

    "Wonder how they will eventually make some money!"

    More eyeballs! Seriously, though, that's a good question. Facebook survived the dot com bust (or popped up after it), but seems to have the same strategy overall -- "If we get lots of people using the site, we'll somehow make money."

    If they're not making the cash they need off banner ads.. well.. I think they're boned. They'll have to make it all more efficient somehow or go out of business. (Not having videos and all, I don't think they have an option like youtube of putting short ads IN anything more than they already do.)

  4. paul brain
    Coat

    I see the future, 10 years from now

    Sorry...

    Face..What ?????

    No cross my palm with silver and give me your F'n money.

  5. Elmer Phud

    Dubai

    Last refuge for those who refuse to live in the real world. Oppressive place that can only exist with virtual slave labour. Last bastion of the free market economy. But if it keeps Facebook going who will complain? Certainly not the 'celebrities' that flock there to live. Yup, Dubai is the natural home for Facebook these days -- along with the hairstylists and telephone sanitisers.

  6. Mark Barton

    Save the Earth!

    Turn facebook off, all that electricity we could put to good use else where!

  7. Ian Hendry

    I feel a book coming on

    Will Faceboohoo by Mark Zuckerberg be a holiday read in a year's time? I have been looking forward to a sequel to Boo Hoo by Ernst Malmsten for some years. I have to say, having learned lessons I wasn't expecting it to come.

    Ian Hendry

    CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ

    http://www.wecando.biz

  8. Leo Rampen

    do they make money?

    I can see the potential value in their database of information on people (although that probably isn't really allowed to be utilised by third parties too much), but do facebook actually have much of an income? Advertising must pull in the majority of their income, but I imagine that the amount of bandwidth they burn through means that advertising alone probably doesn't fund them - hence the large cash infusions from microsoft, dubai etx. Do these companies see themselves getting much of a return from these investments? I personally would have thought that throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at facebook would only result in almost-worthless shares in a company with no real income stream.

    I guess they could start offering "facebook premium" for users who want to upload more than x photos/make x wall posts etc. Given the propensity of young people to spend lots of money on phone contracts, you would think a £2/month charge would get a lot of takers.

  9. Ros

    Back in the day,

    AOL Hometown used to be the home of all of the web's narcissists. Yesterday it was closed for good, to absolutely no fanfare whatsoever. That's where Facebook is going.

  10. Kanhef

    @ Henry Wertz

    Facebook started in 2004, well after Dot-com 1.0, but you're right that they have the same business model, or lack thereof. (All of Dot-com 2.0 does, really, but they're leading the charge toward the cliff.) Ad revenues clearly aren't enough, and will only decline as more people use ad-blocking browser extensions. They've tried selling users' personal information, but that hasn't gone over well. Soliciting donations from users will bring in very little revenue and look desperate. Requiring paid subscriptions will drive 90% of their users back to MySpace, though I suppose that would reduce their storage and bandwidth costs.

  11. skeptical i
    Stop

    "We'll make it up on volume!"

    If it costs more to accommodate a customer than the customer actually generates, do you side with: (a) the beancounters ("raise the price"), (b) the programmers/ manufacturers/ engineers ("let's build and offer a less- expensive/ resource- consuming version"), or (c) the marketing department (see above)? Pencils up, and begin.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    1. Collect eyeballs

    3. Profit.

    Why Paris? Because she knows all the steps.

  13. Ishkandar

    @skeptical i

    None of the above !! 4 - revisit the entire business model/concept and see where things went wrong. If necessary, cut the losses and run. If not, find out what needs to be done to re-invent the business as a more profitable one !!

    Meanwhile, suppress the tech-for-tech's-sake techies who can burn through a million an day simply to get new toys to play with; with total disregard to business needs and wants. At the same time, suppress all those marketing johnnies who will burn money up front with total disregard to the returns on spending (the bottom-line, as the Septics call it) !! Also, keep a tight leash on the bean-counters that can only see the numbers on their spreadsheets with total disregard to the greater ramifications of the business - goodwill, employee happiness and loyalty, customer satisfaction and happiness !!

    Been there, seen it and bloody well done it, too !! It helps it you have a previous background as an Axeman, by appointment to some major corporations in the world !!

    The last thing they need is a successful salesman as the CEO !! Don't believe me ?? Ask Steve Jobs about the CEO Apple got from Pepsi !! Damn near murdered Apple and flushed it down the pan !!

  14. Mr Blonde
    Gates Horns

    Sell a small chunk to Google

    and wait for Steve Ballmer to come calling with bags of cash.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    i don't use facebook, but ...

    it's free, right?

    why doesn't FB charge for subscriptions - surely not all their lusers are freetards surely?

    they could tie up with some big ISPs so that subscribers got FB bundled with their account and FB got a share, or something.

    but what do I know?

  16. Dave
    Paris Hilton

    Whats Facebook?

    Is it some sort of site?

    Why anyone would put all their embarrassing details on there is beyond me. Get A Life!

    Paris? Well she knows all about embarrasing details on the internet

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Wow!

    Least see - the dot coms had the same model or 'making' money. They went titsup in ~2000 after blowing through money for 3 years. Facebook would seem to be over due for going titsup. How do I short this POS?

  18. yeah, right.

    advertising?

    Don't know about advertising revenue, but last time I was there I got the same advert 40 times, even after having marked it as "uninteresting", "misleading" and "other->fucking infuriating". If that's their revenue stream they're going to need some seriously deep pockets.

    And all for WHAT exactly? If a business can't make money, why on earth is it still here?

  19. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Thumb Down

    I've never even seen Facebook/Myspace

    I don't feel I'm missing anything either.

  20. fred
    Jobs Horns

    lol, guess he should have sold when he had the chance!!

    1.6 billion was the original offer by yahoo.

    everyone thought the kid had a plan..or hoped he did.

    guess he didn't.

  21. MarmiteToast

    @fred

    Oh he did, just it was to get rich quick, not build a sustainable business.

  22. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    I long for the death of MyFaceSpaceBook & co

    As far as business models are concerned, free hosting is one that has not yet received any sort of viable solution. I expect FaceBook to die a lingering death, hopefully followed shortly thereafter by MySpace, at which point the teeming masses of morons who want to "publish" their lame and idiotic rants will have to pony up and pay themselves their own website, meaning they will finally shut up.

    On that blessed day, millions upon millions of inane babbling and pointless non-discussion threads will all cry out and be silenced, and the Internet will return to being what it was meant to be - the place to read things written by people who actually have something to say and are willing to put their money where their mouth is.

    And, as a side benefit, we just might get things to read that are actually written correctly.

  23. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: I long for the death of MyFaceSpaceBook & co

    You do realise the irony of what you just posted, right, Pascal?

  24. Nicholas Ettel
    Thumb Up

    @ Sarah

    hahahaha! That was fabulous. But surely comment posting/message boards are different... right?

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