Facebook Sees IPO and Growth Opportunities

As IPOs go, Facebook's is right out there. A $100-billion valuation has to count for something!

Let's look at some Facebook stats:

845 million users
48% in 18-34 age range
50% log-in on a daily basis
$1 billion in revenue (2011)
Advertising accounting for 85% of revenue (2011)

Those are some really basic facts, forgetting for the moment that they have better user data and preferences than Google does. People seem to hand over information about themselves at the drop of a hat by liking every product they are interested in, subscribing to feeds, uploading photos and videos, checking in at places - and these activities are just the tip of the iceberg. When you visit a website that has a social feed from Facebook, your preferences are recorded, When you comment on a product via a Facebook form, they know what you're interested in.

And there are other revenue streams that are just beginning to be explored. For example, you've probably noticed that now you can get a coupon for discounts on magazines or haircuts. The newly launched app store is a take from Apple, so we know it works. There are plans for credits for apps that will create an Apple-like 30% revenue on all sales. In addition, advertisements that currently exist only on the Facebook site are already making their way to other websites just as Google does with its Adwords program.

At this point, we likely sound like Facebook evangelists, but that really isn't our goal. There are multiple revenue streams that this company has yet to capitalize on. With its new IPO, Zuckerberg knows the pressure's on him to deliver, and we strongly feel that there isn't going to be a problem digging into new revenue streams with its massive user base and deep data mining of user preferences.

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