FaceBook - head of another DotCom crash?

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Facebook's IPO kicks off Monday (probably)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17946598

In spite of being a (sometime) user myself, I can't help but wonder if it has already had its day. I could easily write a list of things which are 'wrong' with it (by wrong, I mean things which negatively affect users as well as things which stop them enjoying commercial success).

I think that people who pick up these shares are likely to get their fingers burnt within five years (assuming they hold them).

Anyone else think they make a bad bet? Are there any other 'dotcom' stocks which you think are also likely to slide sooner rather than later?

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swerni said:

Now Colin, I know you're a business guru and everyfink

However.

Probably fair to say that they enjoy more commercial success than you could in a thousand life times.

I think every business in the land would love such bad commercial success

I aint no guru. I is a prophet now, innit. And weak ad hominems are poor form.

My point is that whatever they are achieving now, I believe it will be short-lived.

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R11ysf said:

I also disagree and I don't even use facebook. However, if you have 600 million users (or whatever it is) imagine how you can branch out of just social media, which isn't in itself very profitable.

As most people now create events, gigs and parties on facebook imagine if they then branch out so you can book tickets on the facebook page and in doing so become ticket agents? £1 or £2 for every ticket booked is a HUGE profit for the amount of events that run through facebook pages.

Then imagine that they can get their market place to be successful. With a young audience they could become a new ebay. There are so many possibilities with a database of customers that big and as long as the innovation continues £100bn could be cheap. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to be buying shares and am not going to be using facebook but to think that they are already on the decline is short sighted - this could just be the beginning.

Part of the rationale for my position is that they are not innovative, especially when it comes to the way that businesses are integrated/involved. And it's business involvement which will deliver the revenues which fuel the assumptions behind the IPO launch price.

Frankly, it matters not one jot whether every respondent to this thread disagrees with me though. Such is the marvel of the free market in ideas as well as stocks.

R11ysf said:

On a separate note are you going to be doing the auction reports again? They were the reason i found this site - I LOVED those

Thank you. The auction houses weren't so keen, unfortunately.

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Interesting that FB's poor performance yesterday also damaged LinkedIn and Groupon share prices.

I'll reserve 'smug OP' status for a while, but I remain highly dubious of the listing-ability of any web organisation which doesn't actually deliver a beneficial product/outcome.

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I see that Zuckerberg got married yesterday.

Seeing a photo of the 'happy couple' reminds me of Mrs Merton's question to "the lovely" Debbie McGee, "So, what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?"

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AndrewW-G said:

Plotloss said:

Consider that Google alone are adding a terabyte of disk space, every seven seconds. Twenty four hours a day, seven a days a week...

I now have a mental image of somebody simply adding a new 1TB drive into a disk array / enclosure, then counting to seven, before popping in the next one!

Exactly. And what happens if he needs the loo or wants to grab some lunch?

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In the OP V8mate said:

I think that people who pick up these shares are likely to get their fingers burnt within five years (assuming they hold them).

coyft said:

I only invest for the long term, minimum 5 years,

See you back here on 21 May 2017

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Mermaid said:

...cautioned about revenue-growth challenges presented by a shift to mobile devices

FB didn't see that? Really?

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mattnunn said:

Put your money in Tea, it's the future! You can't loose I tell you.

Loose tea? Bag it and never lose it.

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RichyBoy said:

Were investors misled about how much Facebook was REALLY worth? Watchdog to investigate claims investors were not told about lower 'forecasts

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2148414/Wa...

I read your post and for a moment there thought that Anne Robinson was leading the investigation

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eldar said:

Wills2 said:

How much of a loss are the underwriting banks sitting on I wonder?

$2bn? That is more than I spent on lunch, so big money

Pah. Easily covered by government bailout funds, right?

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$0.13

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billybob69 said:

Pesty said:

whatever happened to friends reunited?

bought by ITV for 175 million with only 15 million users in 2005, now worth less than 5 million.....

Wan't it recently sold again?

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