There's alot of press about the $50B value that private trading has put on Facebook. I have a couple of thoughts on it, which are begining to crystalise in a view that the valuation is inflated by 2000-esque dotcom hype. Firstly, the small portions of Facebook being sold off to Goldman Sachs et al are not based on efficient market prices - instead, they are based on the buyers' desire to own the in-thing before they miss out. Now, I can understand entirely that no one wants to miss out on the next Google (market cap currently hovering just under $200B), but I can't help but think that Facebook is an entirely different animal. The great thing about Google is that it appeals to everyone. At its heart it's very simple - a clean, simple and accurate search engine. So consumers love it and use it in huge volumes, increasingly as a landing page into the web (a significant proportion of queries are now web addresses, sans "www."). Therefore advertisers love it and Go...
Thoughts on strategy in a Digital Economy