ZDNet | Friending Facebook Blog RSS

http://www.zdnet.com/ ZDNet | Friending Facebook Blog RSS Latest blogs in Friending Facebook en ZDNet customerservice@zdnet.com (ZDNet Customer Services) uk-engineering@cbsinteractive.com (ZDNet Webmaster) Fri, 24 May 2013 06:09:59 -0700 Fri, 24 May 2013 06:09:59 -0700 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 2 http://i.zdnet.com/images/spry/zdnet_300x300.jpg http://www.zdnet.com/ ZDNet | Friending Facebook Blog RSS 143 39 0 20 1326 7000001745 <![CDATA[Find Friending Facebook on CNET]]>

Over two months ago, I closed down the Friending Facebook blog. The title of my post bringing this sad news to you was Goodbye Friending Facebook: We only part to meet again. That was a hint.

Some of you have already noticed, but I'm back from my vacation and I'm writing about Facebook again! The only difference is that my coverage can now be found on CNET instead of ZDNet. Here's what you need to know:

All Facebook stories on CNET can be found here.
My CNET profile with all my stories can be found here.
You can Subscribe to my Facebook account here: facebook.com/emil.protalinski.
You can Follow me on Twitter here: twitter.com/emilprotalinski.
You can add me to your Google+ Circles here: plus.google.com/103897375441006577816/posts.

As for ZDNet, you can still find more of my articles over on ZDNet's security blog: Zero Day. Okay, now I'm really done. Thanks again for being a great audience, and see you all at CNET!

]]> 6277013427 <![CDATA[Goodbye Friending Facebook: We only part to meet again]]> I am sad to announce it is time to say goodbye to Friending Facebook. The closing is part of a broader move to refocus ZDNet as a business brand. Let's face it: while Facebook is becoming more and more important for businesses of all sizes, the social networking giant is very consumer focused. As such, Friending Facebook is closing down.

The timing is perfect. This was Facebook's last week as a private company. This upcoming week, Facebook's first as a public company, I'm going on vacation and travelling across Europe. Facebook and I are both moving into new chapters of our respective lives.

Over the last 15 months, I've written hundreds of articles, received thousands of comments, and brought in millions of page views. I've broken major stories but I've also made mistakes. It's been a roller coaster ride, but I can definitely say I have learned a lot.

Here's a quick look back at Friending Facebook's top 25 articles by traffic:

I want to thank all of you for your dedication, for your commentary, and for your feedback. Seriously, it's been an honor to bring you Facebook news and commentary over the last year.

R.I.P. Friending Facebook First article: February 14, 2011 Last article: May 20, 2012

You can find more of my articles over on ZDNet's security blog: Zero Day. You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter.

]]> 6277013412 <![CDATA[Facebook rules: Everyone can vote on new privacy policy]]>

Facebook is going to have to put its new privacy policy (or rather Data Use Policy) up for a vote, according to its own rules. The company has yet to announce such a plan, but now that the commenting period has closed, it's only a matter of time.

Last Friday, Facebook proposed improvements to its Data Use Policy. You can view the tracked changes at the bottom of this article and go through an explanation of them over on the Facebook Site Governance webpage.

Facebook also held a live video Q&A on Monday and launched a Facebook Terms and Policies Hub at facebook.com/policies. Most importantly, the company asked its users to comment on the changes. It's now closed:

The comment period for our proposed new Data Use Policy is now complete. Thank you for your participation. We plan to review and analyze your comments over the coming days and will keep you posted on next steps.

Here's where it gets interesting. There's a clause in Facebook's own terms of service (Statement of Rights and Responsibilities) under the Amendments section that states the following:

If more than 7,000 users comment on the proposed change, we will also give you the opportunity to participate in a vote in which you will be provided alternatives. The vote shall be binding on us if more than 30% of all active registered users as of the date of the notice vote.

So, how many comments were made? Here's the breakdown (at the time of writing, these numbers can still go up):

10,487 comments were made in English.
27 comments were made in French.
33 comments were made in Italian.
37,326 comments were made in German.
54 comments were made in Spanish.
8 comments were made in Japanese.
18 comments were made in Turkish.
9 comments were made in Korean.
27 comments were made in Portuguese.

Let's just say that the 7,000 comment threshold has been destroyed. Almost seven times the number of required comments have been made.

You might be wondering how this happened, and how Facebook didn't foresee it. You can thank the Austrian group Europe versus Facebook, and its initiative at our-policy.org.

The plan was simple: get as many people as possible to spam the comment section with the statement "I oppose the changes and want a vote about the demands on www.our-policy.org." It worked.

Now let's see how long it takes Facebook to launch a voting system for its new Data Use Policy.

By the way, if you think the name "Europe versus Facebook" seems familiar, there's a good reason for that. This is the same group that made 22 formal complaints regarding the social network's practices. The group even managed to accidentally get Reddit involved, whose users overwhelmed Facebook with data requests back in September 2011.

That's not the important part. Europe versus Facebook helped spur an investigation by Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC). You might think this wasn't a big deal, but it was crucial. Just because you don't live in Ireland, doesn't mean you're not affected. After all, this new privacy policy is for everyone who uses Facebook.

Facebook has over 901 million active users, but its headquarters in the U.S. is not responsible for the majority of them. Facebook's international headquarters is in Dublin, meaning all users outside of the U.S. and Canada are subject to Irish and European data protection laws. Facebook chose Dublin for the tax incentives: businesses are charged approximately 2 percent tax in Dublin compared to 35 percent tax in the U.S.

This past December, Ireland's DPC completed his three-month privacy audit of Facebook's activities. Facebook promised to make a slew of changes, and agreed to a more formal follow-up review in July 2012.

The clock is ticking. Facebook needs to get this voting thing in order so that it can push out an updated privacy policy in some six weeks.

See also:

]]> 6277013405 <![CDATA[Facebook acquires mobile social gifting startup Karma]]> Mobility

Facebook has acquired Karma, a San Francisco-based startup that developed an e-commerce platform around gift giving. Essentially, Karma is a gift-giving service that lets not only the giver pick from a list of curated gifts, but it also lets the receiver customize the gift, swap it for something else, or donate it to charity. This works because the giver doesn't provide the receiver's address: the receiver instead gets a text, e-mail, or Facebook message that they got a gift.

The service, launched in February on Android and iPhone, is just a few months old. It would appear that the company's gifting technology or mobile appeal really caught someone's eye at Facebook.

Karma's 15 employees are moving to work for the social networking giant. Additional details of the acquisition were not disclosed, but this isn't just your typical Facebook talent acquisition; Facebook will be acquiring the whole company.

"We've been really impressed with the Karma team and all they accomplished in such a short time," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "This acquisition combines Karma's passion and innovative mobile app with Facebook's platform to help people connect and share in new and meaningful ways."

Here's the full announcement from Karma:

Karma is moving to Facebook: Why social gifting is about to get a lot more social

We founded Karma with the goal of adding the sentiment and meaning back into gift giving. That's what Karma is all about. That's what the Karma team set out to achieve.

Over the last year, we've built a new e-commerce platform from the ground up. We've been honored to partner with amazing brands to create a curated catalog of products. We made those products instantly giftable in a brand new way. And we harnessed the power of Facebook's social network to ensure you never miss a chance to show someone you care. The phenomenal response and feedback we've heard from customers has more than exceeded our expectations. And we're just getting started — today we take social gifting to the next level.

We're thrilled to announce that Karma has been acquired by Facebook. The service that Karma provides will continue to operate in full force. By combining the incredible passion of our community with Facebook's platform we can delight users in new and meaningful ways. As we say … only good things will follow.

Simply put, together we can celebrate life's important moments in ways we could not before. A word of heartfelt thanks to our partners, customers, and our incredible team for helping us share Karma with so many people.

Sincerely,? Karma Co-founders Lee & Ben

Karma isn't going away, or at least it hasn't yet. You can give it a shot here: Google Play store and Apple App Store.

See also:

]]> 6277013387 <![CDATA[Facebook closes at $38 on day one]]>

Facebook on Thursday priced its shares at $38, giving itself a valuation of $104 billion, and raising $18.41 billion. Earlier today, Facebook went public at 9:30 AM EST and then started trading on the Nasdaq under the "FB" ticker at 11:00 AM EST. At 4:00 PM EST, Facebook was back at $38.37.

If you're wondering how this is possible, let me explain. The company's 33 underwriters bought up shares of the company during the Nasdaq debut to prop it up and keep it above the $38 offering price through most of the day. That's why even though it tanked right at the beginning, after debuting at $42.05 (a gain of nearly 11 percent, which I'm sure all the company's investors are quite please with), it never went below $38.

It's a fairly common practice during IPOs, especially high-profile ones. Facebook is no exception. The underwriters (read: banks) make sure to buy enough to counter the massive demand of selling. The goal is to prevent their customers (remember who they offer shares to) from suffering big losses.

See also:

]]> 6277013382 <![CDATA[Zuckerberg: "Our mission isn't to be a public company" (video)]]> Banking Legal Facebook on Thursday priced its shares at $38, giving itself a valuation of $104 billion, and raising $18.41 billion. Earlier today, Facebook went public at 9:30 AM EST. Right before then though, Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had a few words to share, as you can see in the video embedded above, courtesy of Bloomberg.

Here's a transcript of what Zuckerberg said:

I just want to say a few things, and then we'll ring this bell and we'll get back to work. Right now, this all seems like a big deal. Going public is an important milestone in our history. But here's the thing: our mission isn't to be a public company. Our mission is to make the world more open and connected. In the past eight years, all of you out there have built the largest community in the history of the world. You've done amazing things that we never would have dreamed of, and I can't wait to see what you're all going to do going forward.

So, on this special day, on behalf of everyone at Facebook, I just want to say to all the people out there who use Facebook and our products, thank you.

So let's do this! *Hits the button to ring the Nasdaq bell*

This is an awesome moment. Remember, stay focused and keep shipping.

Following all this, at 11:00 AM EST, Facebook began trading on the Nasdaq under the "FB" ticker.

See also:

]]> 6277013363 <![CDATA[FB starts trading on the Nasdaq]]> Banking Social Enterprise Update - Facebook closes at $38 on day one

CNET Live Blog

Facebook on Thursday priced its shares at $38, giving itself a valuation of $104 billion, and raising $18.41 billion. Earlier today, Facebook went public at 9:30 AM EST. Now, at 11:00 AM EST, Facebook has begun trading on the Nasdaq under the "FB" ticker.

You can watch the stock in real-time on the Nasdaq or your favorite financial site. So… How high will FB go?.

Here's the market opening:

Update at 11:25 EST - Nasdaq still hasn't shown a price. Usually there's a 5 minute delay, but 25 minutes is unprecedented.

Update at 11:30 EST - We finally have a price: $42.86.

Update at 11:37 EST - Down to $40.00.

Update at 11:50 EST - We're back to $38.00.

Update - Facebook closes at $38 on day one

See also:

]]> 6277013358 <![CDATA[Facebook hit with $15 billion class action user tracking lawsuit]]> Legal

Facebook is being sued for $15 billion for tracking users, even after they have logged out of the social network, and violating federal wiretap laws. If that sounds familiar, that's because it is: Facebook faces nationwide class action tracking cookie lawsuit.

Today's lawsuit, filed in Federal Court in San Jose, California, combines 21 separate cases across the U.S. in 2011 and early 2012. It's an amended consolidated class-action complaint that claims the company is invading the privacy of its users by tracking them across the Internet. If the claimants are successful in their case against Facebook, they could prevent Menlo Park from collecting the huge amount of data it collects about its users to serve ads back to them.

Like the previous lawsuits, Facebook is once again being accused of violating the Federal Wiretap Act, which provides statutory damages per user of $100 per day per violation, up to a maximum per user of $10,000. The complaint also asserts claims under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act, various California Statutes, and California common law. It's worth noting that similar cases against Facebook and others filed under the wiretap law have been thrown out because browser cookies are simply not considered wiretaps and plaintiffs have difficulty proving any harm.

Stewarts Law is one of the firms leading the claim. "This is not just a damages action, but a groundbreaking digital-privacy rights case that could have wide and significant legal and business implications," David Straite, a partner at Stewarts Law, said in a statement.

Facebook has been accused multiple times of using cookies to track users even after they log out of the service. Menlo Park has since twice denied the allegations, and has also twice fixed the issue. Nevertheless, the lawsuits just keep coming. In additional to national lawsuits, there have been several lawsuits filed in multiple states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

In September 2011, self-proclaimed hacker Nik Cubrilovic accused Facebook of tracking its users even if they log out of the social network. He explained that even after logging out of the service, whenever he visited a website that had a Facebook plugin, information including his account ID was still being sent to Palo Alto.

The company responded by denying the claims and offering an explanation as to why its cookies behave the way they do. Menlo Park explained that it does not track users across the Web and its cookies are used to personalize content. As for the logged-out cookies, Facebook said they are used for safety and protection.

After a long technical discussion, Cubrilovic confirmed Facebook made changes to the logout process, and that the cookies in question behave as they should. They still exist, but they no longer send back personally-identifiable information after you log out. The company also took the time to explain what each cookie is responsible for.

Later that month, 10 privacy groups and US congressmen sent letters asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate Facebook for these and other practices. Note that the FTC settlement from November 2011 was over charges that date back to December 2009, meaning the tracking cookie issue was never discussed.

In October 2011, the issue came back. It was discovered that the datr cookie, which can be used for tracking users, was once again being set on third-party websites with a Facebook social plugin – whether you are logged in or logged out of the service. Facebook confirmed the bug, said only some third-party websites were affected, and fixed it.

Also in September, Ireland's Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) agreed to conduct a privacy audit of Facebook. Since the social network giant's international headquarters is in Dublin, the larger majority of the site's users are affected by any of the DPC's decisions (see Europe versus Facebook). Thankfully for Facebook, when the DPC completed his three-month privacy audit of Facebook's activities in December 2011, he said Facebook makes "innovative use of cookies to identify unusual or suspicious activity" on an account.

All that being said, Facebook still needs to worry about this lawsuit and all the previous ones related to cookie tracking. I have contacted Facebook and will update you if I hear back.

See also:

]]> 6277013337 <![CDATA[Watch Facebook go public]]> Banking Social Enterprise

Facebook on Thursday priced its shares at $38, giving itself a valuation of $104 billion, and raising $18.41 billion. In the biggest moment for the 8-year-old company (yet), Facebook is going public today.

Don't want to miss it? Don't worry. The Nasdaq is streaming the event live and CNET has a live blog.

Here's the schedule (in EST):

9:15:00 NASDAQ Video Presentation
9:22:00 Director, NASDAQ OMX, introduces Senior Executive, TBD, NASDAQ OMX
9:22:30 Remarks from Senior Executive, TBD, NASDAQ OMX; invites Chairman, President and/or CEO, XYZ Company, to podium
9:24:30 Remarks from Chairman, President and/or CEO, XYZ Company.
9:26:30 Senior Executive, TBD, NASDAQ OMX, presents crystal commemorative gift
9:27:00 Guests join Chairman, President and/or CEO, XYZ Company onstage.
9:29:15 Prepare for Opening Bell, face cameras, applause
9:29:50 Ten-second countdown
9:30:00 XYZ Company "Rings NASDAQ Opening Bell"

Yes, that's very general but don't worry it still applies to Facebook. Currently, Facebook employees are on the final stretch of their last hackathon as a private company at their Menlo Park headquarters. The event will end with Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg ringing the Nasdaq bell remotely to signal the company has gone public.

Facebook shares will start trading later this morning. Shares are expected to be released at approximately 11:00 A.M. EST. You'll be able to watch the stock in real-time on the Nasdaq or your favorite financial site. So… How high will FB go?.

Update

See also:

]]> 6277013336 <![CDATA[Mark Zuckerberg's personal challenge for 2012: Code every day]]>

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote a lot of the initial code for Facebook, but very little of it, if any, is still in use. It has been written, rewritten, and optimized many times over. I guess that doesn't matter, given that Zuckerberg barely programs anymore anyway; his time is mainly dedicated to management and his vision of connecting the world. In 2006, when he was 22 and his company was only two years old, Zuckerberg gave up writing code. This year, however, he's reportedly been trying to program every single day.

It's all part of a set of personal challenges Zuckerberg has been setting for himself for the last few years. The young man, who turned 28 on Monday, has had to work extremely hard to meet all the demands of his quickly growing company, his family and friends, as well as his own goals.

The first annual test of discipline was vowing to wear a tie to work every day in 2009. Then Zuckerberg pushed himself to learn Mandarin in 2010. Finally, he insisted on personally killing any animal he ate in 2011 (causing him to become almost a complete vegetarian). That last one caused quite a stir last year; I remember it even though I wasn't covering Facebook at the time.

So 2012 is for programming, at least according to Businessweek: Zuckerberg this year "pledged to return to his roots and spend time programming each day." I bet he'll satisfy today's and tomorrow's coding quote at the company's last hackathon as a private company that is happening as I write this.

The 2012 challenge seems like Zuckerberg's best one yet, because it's directly related to his job. Technology company CEOs that keep up with the latest developments in programming have a much more realistic strategy and more importantly, can communicate it better to their engineers.

That makes sense, given that Facebook is going public this year (read: tomorrow). Zuckerberg is going to want to make sure he can still connect with everyone at the social networking giant as it continues to grow.

See also:

]]> 6277013324 <![CDATA[Facebook's last hackathon before going public is a go]]> Banking Social Enterprise

On Wednesday a rumor suggested that Facebook had scheduled an all-nighter hackathon for Thursday at its Menlo Park headquarters. This has now been confirmed by a Facebook employee. The event will end with Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg ringing the Nasdaq bell remotely to signal the company has gone public.

Speaking of rumors, I'm hearing Facebook employees are all going to be wearing hoodies on Friday for the big day. If you don't get the reference, watch this: Analyst: Mark Zuckerberg's hoodie is ‘a mark of immaturity'.

Anyway, back to the hackathon. Here's the proof, courtesy of Facebook Director of Product Blake Ross:

Facebook's 31st hackathon will kick off from this spot in just a few hours. Thousands of people from across the company will stay up all night long to build brand new Facebook products. Then, at 6:30AM, Mark will open the NASDAQ from this spot and Facebook will begin trading on the public stock markets.

What should we work on tonight? What features or fixes would you most like to see in Facebook? — at Facebook HQ.

This hackathon will probably result in some new product ideas and features, unlike the last one we heard about: Facebook engineers + paint + beer = giant QR code on roof (video). After all, it's the last one Facebook will have as a private company. In the next few weeks, we'll probably hear about what Facebook engineers came up with. I admit; I'm excited.

More photos: Keith Peiris and Jez Burrows

See also:

]]> 6277013314 <![CDATA[IPO day: How high will FB go?]]> Banking Social Enterprise

Facebook will go public Friday morning and start trading on the Nasdaq under the "FB" ticker. Don't you wish you could predict what the price will be? Well, maybe you can. There's a way to test your supernatural stock market powers, and of course it's on the Internet.

Angel investor Chris Sacca asked for a website where people could predict how high (or low) Facebook's stock would go on day one. Programmer James Proud agreed. Ask, and ye shall receive: FacebookIPODayClosingPrice.com.

Here's how the conversation went, on Twitter, rather than Facebook:

Sacca: Will someone please make facebookipodayclosingprice.com? I would love to see all the pundits place their bets. Proud: @sacca Ok! Proud: @sacca yo, so I went and created

All of that happened yesterday. Proud explains:

A quick hack from @jamesproud inspired by @sacca's tweet. I thought it’d be cool to know and build.

Quickly knocked together with Python, Tornado, Postgres, Redis, Heroku, no sleep and Bootstrap.

At the time of writing, the site told me that "900 people have predicted at an average closing share price of $54 valuing Facebook at $ 135,718,802,154." That's a 42 percent increase over the $38 IPO share price.

All you need is a Twitter account. Sign in with yours to place your bet on what price Facebook's stock will be at market close on Friday. This might help you out, Facebook IPO: Final numbers.

See also:

]]> 6277013257 <![CDATA[Facebook IPO: Final numbers]]> Legal Social Enterprise

When Facebook filed for its initial public offering (IPO), I wrote Facebook's IPO by the numbers. This is an updated post to that article. Now that Facebook has set its share price, we've got all the numbers we need.

Here are the numbers you need to know, plus a few extra ones about Facebook in general:

$1 is the salary Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be paid starting in 2013.

2 is the number of classes of Facebook stock; Class A (worth one vote, and available to those who want to buy the company’s stock on the open market) and Class B (worth 10 votes, and only available to select individuals and investors).

15 percent of Facebook's revenue came from Zynga in Q1 2012, including both payments revenue and advertising that is displayed alongside Zynga games. That's down from 19 percent in Q1 2011.

28 companies have been acquired by Facebook so far.

38 mentions of the word "privacy" in the eighth and last IPO amendment.

55 mentions of competing and/or partnering companies with Facebook in the eighth and last IPO amendment. More specifically, Google is mentioned 14 times, Google+ is mentioned twice, Microsoft is mentioned 29 times, Twitter is mentioned twice, while both Friendster and MySpace go unmentioned.

39.4 percent year-over-year growth in Facebook's net income (read: profit) from 2010 to 2011.

46.8 percent year-over-year growth in Facebook's revenue from 2010 to 2011.

56 percent of Facebook's revenue comes from advertisers and Platform developers based in the U.S. This number is down from 62 percent in 2010.

57.1 percent of Class B shares (voting control) owned by Mark Zuckerberg.

70 different languages are supported by Facebook.

3,539 full-time employees work for Facebook around the world as of Q1 2012.

$200,000 is the amount Facebook paid for the facebook.com domain when it finally dropped the "The" from its name in 2005.

$783,529 spent on Zuckerberg's "comprehensive security program" in 2011, which included the procurement, installation, and maintenance of security measures for his personal residence, annual costs of security personnel, and the use of private aircraft.

2.2 million is the number in square feet Facebook leased for its office facilities around the world as of March 31, 2012.

$8.5 million is the amount Facebook is thought to have paid the American Farm Bureau Federation (FB) for the fb.com domain name on November 15, 2010, making the acquisition one of the ten highest domain sales in history.

42 million Facebook Pages with 10 or more Likes as of March 31, 2012.

$65 million is the amount Facebook agreed to settle with ConnectU and the Winklevoss brothers in February 2008. That legal battle is still raging.

$68 million spent on acquisitions by Facebook in 2011. These acquisitions, and in fact all of Facebook's acquisitions, were not material to its consolidated financial statements individually or in the aggregate.

169 million monthly active U.S. Facebook users as of March 31, 2011.

$205 million was Facebook's net income (read: profit) in Q1 2012, down from $233 million in Q1 2011 and also down from $302 million during Q4 2011.

$240 million is the amount Microsoft invested in Facebook on October 24, 2007, to purchase a 1.6 percent share of the social networking giant at a total implied value of around $15 billion.

300 million photos uploaded to Facebook daily in the three months ended March 31, 2012.

$388 million in research and development expenses spent by Facebook in 2011, or about 10.5 percent of its revenue last year. The company also spent $87 million in 2009 and $144 million in 2010.

421,233,615 is the number of shares Facebook is offering for its IPO. Facebook is selling 180,000,000 while investors are selling 241,233,615.

488 million monthly active mobile Facebook users as of March 31, 2012. It was over 350 million on September 22, 2011.

526 million daily active users on average using Facebook throughout March 2012.

533,801,850 shares owned by Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, or a 28.4 percent stake in the company. Good thing he didn't sell it, like he wanted to in 2004.

$557 million Facebook's revenue from payments and other fees in 2011, or about 15.01 percent of its total revenue.

901 million monthly active Facebook users as of March 31, 2012. It was over 800 million on September 22, 2011.

1 billion is the number of monthly active users Facebook is expected to pass this year, possibly in August.

$1 billion was Facebook's net income (read: profit) in 2011. This is pretty solid given growth from previous years: $229 million in 2009 and $606 million in 2010.

$1.058 billion was Facebook's revenues in Q1 2012, up from $731 million in Q1 2011 but down from $1.131 billion in Q4 2011. It's worth noting that revenues also declined between these two quarters a year ago. Facebook typically makes more money in the calendar year’s fourth quarter than in the first quarter.

$1.4 billion paid out to developers from transactions enabled by Facebook's Payments infrastructure in 2011.

$3.154 billion was Facebook's revenue from advertising in 2011, or about 84.99 percent of its total revenue.

3.2 billion Likes and Comments made per day during Q1 2012.

$3.711 billion was Facebook's total revenue in 2011. This is lower than some projections, but it's still pretty solid given growth from past years: 777 million in 2009 and $1.974 billion in 2010.

$3.908 billion was Facebook's total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities at the end of 2011.

$6.84 billion is the amount Facebook is hoping to raise with its IPO for itself.

10.5 billion average number of minutes spent per day by Facebook users on personal computers during January 2012.

$18.41 billion is the amount Facebook is hoping to raise with its IPO for itself and investors.

$102.8 billion is Facebook's highest and last valuation on secondary markets back in March 2012.

$104 billion is Facebook's valuation on the day it goes public.

125 billion friend connections on Facebook as of March 31, 2012.

1 trillion monthly page views on Facebook, according to June 2011 data from Google.

Did I miss something? Let me know!

See also:

]]> 6277013298 <![CDATA[Weeks later, Facebook stops censoring member]]>

Facebook has stopped censoring at least one of its members after she contacted me and I published two articles about the issue. Unfortunately, Facebook took days to fix the problem and get back to me, which is a very rare occurrence for the company.

On Saturday, I wrote an article titled "Facebook censors members after unjustly labeling them spammers" in which I described how Facebook user Rima Regas was being censored by the social network. I shot off the usual e-mail to Facebook PR, and added a CC for Facebook public policy manager Fred Wolens.

I usually get a very quick response when I ask for a statement on sensitive issues. Last time was just the weekend before, and Facebook got back to me within the hour. Then again, that story was about technical evangelist Robert Scoble, so the response was very quick. This time, Facebook did not get back to me on Saturday, nor on Sunday.

On Monday, the issue got worse and I wrote an article titled "Facebook extends censorship ban to a month." I once again asked for a statement. Facebook did not get back to me on Monday. On Tuesday, I got an e-mail from Wolens telling me my messages had landed in his spam folder. That's fine, but what about the rest of the PR team that got my e-mail?

I did not get anything from Facebook on Wednesday.

On Thursday (today), I asked Wolens why I still hadn't received a response. Minutes after Facebook announced it was going public on Friday, Wolens called me.

He told me that the company had improved its spam detection algorithms. He said that in this case, the actual comment was not spammy, but because Regas was posting very quickly and frequently, she was marked as a spammer. He talked about how Facebook's systems are a constant work in progress.

I asked for a statement, again. Third time's the charm:

To protect the millions of people who connect and share on Facebook every day, we have automated systems that work in the background to maintain a trusted environment and protect our users from bad actors who often use links to spread spam and malware. These systems are so effective that most people who use Facebook will never encounter spam. They're not perfect, though, and in rare instances they make mistakes. This user was blocked from commenting due to deprecated spam classifier, and we have already made the necessary adjustments to our system to make sure we don't repeat the same mistake in the future.

I contacted Regas to let her know she's been unblocked. Here's her response: "Yay! I'm out of jail! I was just able to post to Jonathan Capehart and Chris Cilliza's pages."

As I outlined in my previous articles, I shouldn't have to do this. Why does there have to be a middle-man for issues like this one, and the countless other ones I've covered?

I get that no spam system is perfect, and that's okay. What's not okay is Facebook users having no way to fight back when the algorithms fail.

Facebook needs a due process. Facebook needs a proper communication channel between its staff and users. Facebook needs to do more.

See also:

]]> 6277013281 <![CDATA[Facebook sets IPO share price at $38: $104 billion valuation]]> Legal Social Enterprise

As expected, Facebook on Thursday priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $38 a share. This gives the social networking giant a valuation of $104 billion, which will make it the largest U.S. company, by market value, at its IPO.

Facebook will go public Friday morning and start trading on the Nasdaq under the "FB" ticker. When that happens, the social networking giant's IPO will become the second largest U.S. listed IPO, in terms of money raised, just behind Visa (see also: The Top 10 Web IPOs of all time -- pre-Facebook, that is).

On Wednesday, Facebook increased its IPO size by 25 percent. The social networking giant is thus offering some 421.2 million shares. This means Facebook is raising $16.01 billion when it goes public ($6.84 billion billion for itself and $9.17 billion for investors).

If you include over-allotted shares, meaning a grand total of 484.4 million parts of the company, Facebook could end up raising $18.41 billion. For comparison's sake, Google saw the largest technology IPO when it raised $1.67 billion in August 2004.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will personally sell 30.2 million shares for the IPO. Despite this, he will still control the majority of the company: 57.3 percent of voting shares after the IPO.

While 180 million of the offered shares will come from the company itself, the remainder will come from investors. Here are the parties that plan to unload part of their stake:

Accel Partners: 49.03 million shares, leaving it with around 152.35 million shares.
DST Group: 45.66 million shares, left with around 85.62 million shares
Goldman Sachs: 28.67 million shares, left with around 37.27 million shares.
Elevation Partners: 4.62 million shares, left with around 35.49 million shares.
Greylock Partners: 7.61 million shares, left with around 29.05 million shares.
Mail.ru Group: 19.60 million shares, left with around 36.75 million shares.
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: 1.01 million shares, left with around 4.30 million shares.
Meritech Capital Partners: 7.00 million shares, left with around 29.66 million shares.
Microsoft: Offering 6.56 million shares, left with around 26.23 million shares.
Reid Hoffman: 942,000 shares, left with around 3.77 million shares.
Tiger Global Management: 23.41 million shares, left with around 60.43 million shares.

All other parties plan to keep holding their shares. These include T. Rowe Price, Andreessen Horowitz, Sean Parker, and Dustin Moskovitz.

In its fourth IPO amendment, Facebook released Q1 2012 financials. Revenues followed typical trends, but profits were down:

Facebook saw revenues of $1.058 billion in Q1 2012, up from $731 million in Q1 2011 but down from $1.131 billion in Q4 2011. It’s worth noting that revenues also declined between these two quarters a year ago. Facebook typically makes more money in the calendar year’s fourth quarter than in the first quarter.

Facebook saw net income of $205 million in Q1 2012, down from $233 million in Q1 2011 and also down from $302 million during Q4 2011.

When Facebook released all its IPO numbers three months ago, Morgan Stanley received the coveted lead left role. "Lead left" refers to where the top underwriter's name appears on the IPO prospectus. Also on the initial list of bookrunners on the deal were J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, and Allen & Company. A month later, Facebook added 25 more underwriters, and then two more this month, bringing total to 33:

Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC
J.P. Morgan Securities LLC
Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated
Barclays Capital Inc.
Allen & Company LLC
Citigroup Global Markets Inc.
Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC
Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.
RBC Capital Markets, LLC
Wells Fargo Securities, LLC
Blaylock Robert Van LLC
BMO Capital Markets Corp.
C.L. King & Associates, Inc.
Cabrera Capital Markets, LLC
CastleOak Securities, L.P.
Cowen and Company, LLC.
E*TRADE Securities LLC
Itau BBA USA Securities
Lazard Capital Markets LLC
Lebenthal & Co., LLC
Loop Capital Markets LLC
M.R. Beal & Company
Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc.
Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc.
Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
Pacific Crest Securities LLC
Piper Jaffray & Co.
Raymond James & Associates, Inc.
Samuel A. Ramirez & Company, Inc.
Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated
The Williams Capital Group, L.P.
William Blair & Company, L.L.C.
E*Trade Securities

In February 2011, Facebook set up a $1.5 billion credit agreement with five of the six leading underwriters of its $5 billion initial public offering (IPO). In September 2011, Facebook upped that number to $2.5 billion. 10 of the 31 underwriters let Facebook bump that number to $5 billion plus a $3 billion bridge loan, and go on a shopping spree.

First, Facebook bought Instagram (and its 13 employees) for $300 million and 23 million shares. There's a $200 million break-up fee and an FTC investigation.

Next, Facebook bought 650 AOL patents from Microsoft for $550 million, bringing its patent portfolio into triple digits. This was a necessary defense measure as the company is facing an increasingly fierce patent battle with Yahoo that is threatening its business.

Now Facebook is going to have to take its business out into the open.

For reference, here's the full press release from Facebook:

MENLO PARK, Calif., May 17, 2012 -- Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 421,233,615 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $38 per share. The shares are expected to begin trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on May 18, 2012, under the symbol "FB." Facebook is offering 180,000,000 shares of Class A common stock and selling stockholders are offering 241,233,615 shares of Class A common stock. Closing of the offering is expected to occur on May 22, 2012, subject to customary closing conditions.

In addition, Facebook and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 63,185,042 additional shares of Class A common stock to cover over-allotments, if any.

Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan, Goldman, Sachs & Co., BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Allen & Company LLC, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank Securities are serving as book runners for the offering. RBC Capital Markets and Wells Fargo Securities are serving as active co-managers.

The offering will be made only by means of a prospectus. Copies of the prospectus related to the offering may be obtained from: Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, New York 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department (Tel: +1 866 718 1649; e-mail: prospectus@morganstanley.com); J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, c/o Broadridge Financial Solutions, 1155 Long Island Avenue, Edgewood, NY 11717, (Tel: +1 866 803 9204); or Goldman, Sachs & Co., 200 West Street, New York, NY 10282, Attention: Prospectus Department (Tel: +1 866 471 2526, e-mail: prospectus-ny@ny.email.gs.com).

A registration statement related to these securities has been filed with, and declared effective by, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

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]]> 6277013271 <![CDATA[Facebook to set stock price at $38 (rumor)]]> Banking Social Enterprise Update - Facebook sets IPO share price at $38: $104 billion valuation

Facebook is reportedly about to price its initial public offering (IPO) at $38 a share. It could be even higher, but either way the move would value the company at more than $100 billion.

The final decision hasn't been made yet. Facebook executives and senior bankers are still discussing the price, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by the WSJ.

On Tuesday, Facebook increased its IPO price range from $28-$35 to $34-$38 per share. You can thus argue that Facebook will not be able to set its shares higher than in the low $40s, maybe $45 at the most. Most likely though, I would wager we'll see something just below $40. Right now, it looks like Facebook is pushing for the higher end of its range.

On Wednesday, Facebook increased its IPO size by 25 percent. The social networking giant is now offering some 421.2 million shares. This means Facebook could raise anywhere between $14.32 billion and $16.01 billion when it goes public (between $6.12 billion and $6.84 billion for itself, and the rest for investors). If you include over-allotted shares, meaning a grand total of 484.4 million parts of the company, Facebook could raise anywhere between $16.47 billion and $18.41 billion.

Given that Facebook is expecting to sell the entire over-allotment, the social networking giant's IPO will be the second largest U.S. listed IPO behind Visa. At a valuation of $104 billion, Facebook will become the largest U.S. company at its IPO by market value.

Facebook is widely expected to start trading on the Nasdaq tomorrow under the "FB" ticker. Many believe this Friday is the big day; shares will be priced on May 17 (today), with trading beginning on May 18 (tomorrow).

Update - Facebook sets IPO share price at $38: $104 billion valuation

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]]> 6277013258 <![CDATA[21-year-old gets 12 months for hacking Facebook account]]> Government Government US Hardware Social Enterprise

21-year-old Gareth Crosskey of the U.K. has been sentenced to 12 months in jail for illegally accessing a Facebook account belonging to an unidentified individual in the U.S. The Brit was accused of hacking into the American's Facebook account on January 12, 2011. The nature of the relationship between the two is unknown.

After being contacted by the victim, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began looking into the case last year. The FBI traced the source of the hack to the U.K., where the inquiry had to leave American hands. U.S. agents thus contacted Scotland Yard to take over, and the Metropolitan Police Central e-crime Unit (PCeU) tracked down the suspect.

Crosskey was arrested in July 2011 at his home, where authorities also seized computers and storage devices. After being released on bail on February 29, 2012, he was charged with two offenses under the UK's Computer Misuse Act 1990. He was convicted on Wednesday and will now serve a year in prison. He pled guilty to both counts: using a computer to gain unauthorised access to a program/data as well as performing unauthorised acts with intent to impair operation of, or prevent/hinder access to, a computer.

"The PCeU are working to detect and bring before the courts those responsible for this type of offence. Today's result should act as a deterrant to any individuals thinking of participating in this type of criminal activity," a PCeU spokesperson said in a statement. "By taking swift action, PCeU officers were able to quickly detain Crosskey thereby preventing further disruption to the victim."

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]]> 6277013250 <![CDATA[Facebook IPO price range finalized (rumor)]]> Banking Social Enterprise

Facebook's price range for its initial public offering (IPO) has reportedly been finalized. It will not be re-filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before today's pricing call.

At least, that's according to CNBC, which just sent out the following message on Twitter:

ALERT: Facebook IPO price range is now final. Due to SEC requirements, Facebook cannot price higher than low $40s. – Source

Pricing discussions remain ongoing, and a final determination won't be made until after the bell today, according to a person familiar with the matter cited by CNBC. While the social networking giant could still price above the expected range, SEC doesn't allow companies going public to price too far from what has been disclosed to the public.

On Wednesday, Facebook increased its IPO size by 25 percent. The social networking giant is now offering some 421.2 million shares. This means Facebook could raise anywhere between $14.32 billion and $16.01 billion when it goes public (between $6.12 billion and $6.84 billion for itself, and the rest for investors). If you include the over-allotment, meaning a grand total of 484.4 million shares, Facebook could raise anywhere between $16.47 billion and $18.41 billion.

See also:

]]> 6277013239 <![CDATA[Facebook got 9% of all US Internet visits in April]]> Social Enterprise

After Facebook showed off some numbers as part of its initial public offering (IPO) filing three months ago, Hitwise decided to join the fun: by sharing 10 of its own statistics about the social network.

This time, the competitive intelligence service has decided to release some numbers in advance of the big event. It has upped the number of statistics to 15. Some we've seen before, and others we haven't, but either way, here's the full list (the data is for the U.S. only and does not include all mobile traffic):

Facebook.com received 9 percent of all U.S. Internet visits in April 2012.
Facebook.com received more than 1.6 billion visits a week and averaged more than 229 million U.S. visits a day for the year-to-date.
1 in every 5 page views in the U.S. occurred on Facebook.com.
Facebook.com has received more than 400 billion page views this year in the U.S.
The average visit time on Facebook.com is 20 minutes.
The Facebook.com audience skews more female (56 percent) than male.
Facebook.com became the #1 ranked website in the U.S. on March 9, 2010.
The term ‘Facebook’ is the most searched term in the U.S. and has been for the past three years, starting the week ending July 18, 2009.
Facebook-related terms account for 6 percent of the top searched terms in the U.S. and Facebook-related terms made up 4 of the top 10 U.S. searches (among the top 100 search terms for the 4 weeks ending May 12, 2012).
Facebook.com users are highly loyal to the website; 96 percent of visitors to Facebook.com were returning (defined as visited within past 30 days) visitors in April 2012.
10 states account for 52 percent of visits to Facebook.com – California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina based on year-to-date average.
The top states where users are more likely to visit Facebook.com versus the online population are: West Virginia, Kentucky, Maine, Vermont, Arkansas, Iowa, Indiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Alabama based on year-to-date average.
The New York City DMA provides the largest volume of traffic to Facebook.com and the Charleston, WV DMA is the area where users are most likely to visit compared to the online population.
Facebook.com is the top social networking site in the U.S., Canada, UK, Brazil, France, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore markets.
Facebook.com is the top overall site in the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. Facebook.com ranks 2nd in the UK, Brazil, France and Australia.

It's worth noting that the number one item hasn't changed from the statistics released in February. Hitwise just worded it differently. Last time it was "Facebook.com captures 1 in every 11 Internet visits (January 2012)." The third point is identical to last time. Points four, five, and six are also old. The rest have been tweaked or weren't listed in February.

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]]> 6277013229 <![CDATA[Facebook schedules one last hackathon before going public (rumor)]]> Banking Social Enterprise Update on May 17 - Facebook's last hackathon before going public is a go

Facebook has reportedly scheduled an all-nighter hackathon for Thursday (tomorrow) at its Menlo Park headquarters. It will end with Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg ringing the Nasdaq bell remotely to signal the company has gone public.

The social networking has set up an internal Facebook Event page for the big day that supposedly already has over 1,000 saying they are going. "We want to get everyone together and remind ourselves that this company is about building things," a source told TechCrunch.

Earlier today, Facebook increased its IPO size by 25 percent. The social networking giant is now offering some 421.2 million shares. The news follows yesterday's IPO price range increase from $28-$35 to $34-$38 per share. This means Facebook could raise anywhere between $14.32 billion and $16.01 billion when it goes public.

Facebook is widely expected to start trading on the Nasdaq this week under the "FB" ticker. Many believe this Friday is the big day; shares will be priced on May 17, with trading beginning on May 18. Another rumor says there could be a delay, but as every day passes, that seems less and less likely.

Update on May 17 - Facebook's last hackathon before going public is a go

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