Whither Facebook?

[Guest fountainhall]

I am one of the few on this planet without a Facebook account. But like vast numbers around the word, I watched the first session of trading in Facebook shares less than three weeks ago, pretty sure that the offer price would spike upwards fairly quickly. Would Facebook be another Linked In whose shares initially offered at US$45 more than doubled on Day 1, and have remained at roughly that level ever since? After all, Facebook is a much better-known worldwide brand than Linked In, and its IPO price was slightly lower at US$38.

 

Somehow, I feel a strange sense of satisfaction that the stock had trouble holding that offer price and then slowly began to tank. Last night it closed at US$25.87 – a 32% drop. I’m sorry for all those investors who plunged in, but perhaps if they just hang in there, the price will get back above what they paid over time.

 

No, I’m slightly heady that Mark Zukerberg has finally got a nice rotten egg on his face! The guy has clearly got a great product – or should that read, clearly stole a great product and made it his own? – and deserves a lot of credit for getting the world talking to itself. But I for one am delighted that I will not be bombarded eventually with product ads that some computer advises will match my profile and my likes and dislikes!

[Bob]

I, too, am a dinosaur and have no use for Facebook. Had an account for a while but then attempted to get rid of it with some problems (story posted recently on Ting Tong). Never again for me.

 

As for Zuckerberg, I have no clue about the rumors about how he started it or whatever. I tend not to believe most of that because the common rumor was that one of his co-founders was quite upset with him (thought he was ripping him off, tossed a computer at him, etc.) and a recent interview of the co-founder proved all of that to be pure baloney (the co-founder had nothing but praise and good wishes for Zuckerberg).

 

What I don't get is why people post all kinds of personal details on their "wall" for the world to see. But I do tend to chuckle a bit when I read a newspaper story of somebody's house being broken into after they posted on Facebook that they would be gone for the weekend.

[Rogie]

Yet another dinosaur stalks the earth, me; I can envision myself as a stegasauras, thick-skinned and spiky, quite a mini fortress and blissfully unaware of what's happening in the wide blue yonder beyond the confines of my cosy little existence.

[Guest fountainhall]

Bob, I think you refer to Zuckerberg's early business partner who now lives in Singapore, Eduardo Savarin.

 

As a lawyer, I thought you'd have paid close attention to the the law suits against Zuckerberg by the Winklevoss twins, even though you may have missed the movie "The Social Network"!

 

The Winkelvoss twins have steadfastly maintained that Facebook was their idea, that they only brought Zuckerberg in to do the programming for them, and that Zuckerberg basically stole their concept. The case has been before several courts and as a result of settlements the twins were awarded around US$65 million. They finally gave up their seven-year legal battle earlier this year after spending some US$13 million in legal fees.

 

Hope they didn't put that $65 million into Facebook stock!

[Guest thaiworthy]

I do have a Facebook account, but I am thinking of closing it. Can't see how it does me any good. If you are a business or have family you want to keep in touch with on a more casual basis, then fine, but I am having second thoughts. Not sure how to go about it, but haven't really tried yet. Easy to start, more tedious to disengage?

[Guest]

I'm also in the herd of dinosaurs and don't even see the point of Facebook, never mind have an account.

 

I don't even feel sorry for the investors, as it's up to the investor to take responsibilities for their own actions and assess the money making PROBABILITY, rather than the money making POSSIBILITY. If they have done their own job properly, then of course long term investment returns will be attractive, irrespective of the short term fluctuations in share price.

 

Personally, I could not value this particular turkey & decided to stay well clear. There are plenty of other investors out there who make good money, without engaging in this type of speculative investment.

[Rogie]

I can envision myself as a stegasauras

 

correction: stegosaurus

 

Please may I not be a stegosaurus. I wrote that quickly without thinking and now I wish to become a brontosaurus. I am no vegetarian but neither am I downward-looking and uninterested in what others are doing, as I implied in my description of the spiky thick-skinned dinosaur. Ideally I'd like to be spiky and have a long neck; I'd like to have the best of both worlds. The long neck would allow me to be a bit of a snooper and see what's cooking on the savannah or wherever I am. A snooper and a keen observer, that'd describe me, but I keep my private life to myself and so if I come across other friendly dinosaurs I keep out of the gossip circle. What I'm having for dinner tonight and who I'm shagging is none of their business. If only they knew what I get up to in the company of my buddy, the 'cute' triceratops . . .

[Bob]

As a lawyer, I thought you'd have paid close attention to the the law suits against Zuckerberg by the Winklevoss twins, even though you may have missed the movie "The Social Network"!

 

The Winkelvoss twins have steadfastly maintained that Facebook was their idea, that they only brought Zuckerberg in to do the programming for them, and that Zuckerberg basically stole their concept. The case has been before several courts and as a result of settlements the twins were awarded around US$65 million. They finally gave up their seven-year legal battle earlier this year after spending some US$13 million in legal fees.

 

Probably not the place for an extended discussion on this but I don't agree at all with any presumption that "The Social Network" was fact (versus fiction) or that the Winkelvoss boys are victims at all. But I will note:

(1) Anybody can make a claim in a lawsuit. The making of a claim (like the charging of a criminal offense) is not any evidence of truth. Nor should anyone presume, without knowning more, that the Winklevoss boys are either truthful or victims of anything.

(2) The Winklevoss boys along with another ex-Harvard guy made a settlement (purportedly for 65 million dollars with Facebook). They were represented by lawyers and accountants during the settlement process; regardless, after a while, they decided to sue Facebook claiming they should have gotten more for various reasons. The U.S. District Court said they were wrong and they appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and lost there too. They then decided against appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court.

(3) They then sued their lawyers claiming the lawyers didn't protect them enough (i.e., that the lawyers committed malpractice and they should have gotten more money). They lost that case in the New York trial court and also lost the appeal to the New York Supreme Court.

 

The information in items #1 through #3 above is factual. They've been in 4 courts (actually more involving tangential issues) and have lost in every one of them. Those court losses do mean something (multiple judges ruled their claims lacked merit) and the second claim against their own lawyers tells me that their claim against Facebook was even less meritorious than what the various judges ruled.

[ChristianPFC]

Easy to start, more tedious to disengage?

Absolutely! There are websited entirely devoted to how to completely and finally close your facebook account.

 

I have an account and I log in once per week, but I know people who are online on facebook most of their time. Just keep in mind that everything you write (I don't write much anymore) can be read by anyone else. The same applies for pictures.

 

I use facebook mainly as a way of contacting Thai friends (after phone number and gayromeo profile), and gay Thai boys usually have other gay Thai boys as friends, and most of them have pictures on facebook. (Kind of online-stalking!)

 

Apart from that, those of you who don't use facebook don't miss much.

 

It was recently in the news that Bangkok is the city with the most facebook users on earth.

[kokopelli]

I also am among the herd of dinosaurs who do not have a Facebook account.

[Rogie]

It's a whole lot more fun playing with my new-found friends the Fountosaurus, Bobosaurus, Zedosaurus and Kokosaurus than spending all my waking hours keeping a watchful eye for my bete noir T.Rex. Luckily, rumour has it he's spending all his free time networking with all his other carnivorous mates so allowing us gentle herbivores time to enjoy quality time together.

[kokopelli]

Rogie; it seems there is a Kokosaurus on Facebook but not me.

[Rogie]

Now I think about it amongst the millions of Facebook users there must be quite a few with dinosaur-sounding names, but any comparison between them and the old-school dinosaurs akin to Rogiosaurus is purely accidental.

 

I assumed people using Facebook used their real names, but I suppose a few may be living in a fantasy world and using pseudonyms, inventing whole new lives for themselves, non-existent friends etc.

[Guest]

I doubt there would be a z909saurus either.

 

One unfortunate trend is for a number of businesses to have a Facebook page as their only internet presence.

Of course, you have to join Facebook to view these pages, so these businesses are missing the opportunity to market themselves to a segment of the population.

[Rogie]

When my roving eye alights on the bottom left hand side of the main forum page it tells me which members have signed in. Amongst those intrepid souls, often to be found lurking are a few 'outsiders'. Who are these snoopers, and what are they doing here?

 

Their names are familiar but they stand aloof. They are Messrs Google, Yahoo, MSN/Bing, and one other. Blow me, if it isn't that mysterious (to me at any rate) entity Facebook.

 

So back to my original question. I think I can understand what the other three are up to, but what about Facebook? What the dickens is it doing here? For what purpose is it here?

 

Can anyone reading this who's a member of Facebook tell me what's going on?