I think Facebook's isn't stable income. I think they've got ads and their credits system. They have had stable revenues with a pretty consistent 25% margin. I feel FB is a large and stable company.
Facebooks issue is one of perception - one they help perpetuate. They've continually been thrust into the top-tier of tech companies (Apple, Amazon, Google, MS) and the Facebook "problem" is that right now they not. They have the lowest market cap today of any of these companies, (besides having the largest P/E outside of Amazon). And what they don't have a is clear path to how they're going to grow revenues in a manner which will keep them on pace with a Google or Apple.
Building a 25-50 (I think FB is going to continue to slide) billion dollar company in 8 years is an unbelievable achievement and is why people will continue to invest heavily in early stage tech. I think the effect on startups is that VC's and later stage investors have always assumed that users == money. Twitter and Facebook have both raised billions of dollars using this formula. I think this belief is going to be shaken a bit by Facebook's trouble's monetizing their user base. But maybe thats just a reality check that Silicon Valley needs.
Facebooks issue is one of perception - one they help perpetuate. They've continually been thrust into the top-tier of tech companies (Apple, Amazon, Google, MS) and the Facebook "problem" is that right now they not. They have the lowest market cap today of any of these companies, (besides having the largest P/E outside of Amazon). And what they don't have a is clear path to how they're going to grow revenues in a manner which will keep them on pace with a Google or Apple.
Building a 25-50 (I think FB is going to continue to slide) billion dollar company in 8 years is an unbelievable achievement and is why people will continue to invest heavily in early stage tech. I think the effect on startups is that VC's and later stage investors have always assumed that users == money. Twitter and Facebook have both raised billions of dollars using this formula. I think this belief is going to be shaken a bit by Facebook's trouble's monetizing their user base. But maybe thats just a reality check that Silicon Valley needs.