Jul 19th 2007 From The Economist print edition Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is being touted as the new Steve Jobs, and his company as the next Google OLDER people in particular are often taken aback by the speed with which the internet's ânext big thingâ can cease being that. It even happens to Rupert Murdoch, a septuagenarian media mogul. Two years ago he bought MySpace, a social-networking site that has become the world's largest. The other day, however, Mr Murdoch was heard lamenting that MySpace appears already to be last year's news, because everybody is now going to Facebook, the second-largest social network on the web, with 31m registered users at the last count. Facebook was started in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard and not even 20 at the time, along with two of his friends. The site requires users to provide their real names and e-mail addresses for registration, and it then links them up with current and former friends and colleagues with amazing ease. Each Facebook âprofileâ becomes both a repository of each user's information and photos, and a social warren where friends gossip, exchange messages and âpokeâ one another. Facebook is generating so much excitement this summer that bloggers are likening Mr Zuckerberg to Steve Jobs, the charismatic boss of Apple, and calling his company âthe next Googleâ on the assumption that a stockmarket listing must be imminent. It may be. Mr Zuckerberg has rejected big offers from new- and old-media giants such as Yahoo! and Viacom. One of his three sisters, who also works for Facebook, has posted a silly video online that makes fun of Yahoo!'s takeover bid and sings about âgoing for IPOâ. And Facebook has advertised for a âstock administration managerâ with expertise in share regulations. More: http://www.economist.com/people/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9507260
How the *bleep* is this company the next Google? It's basically just a site in which its revenue is displaying ads. This site is just the next myspace at best (although when they indeed listed, I might snatch the stock/options to make a quick profit from people who thinks that this is the next GOOG)
The fact that so many people fail to understand its potential makes it a better long term investment.
You fail to see how vulnerable these social sites are. I guarantee it won't be as big in the next 5 years. Their users are already complaining about all the new crappy features. This will be the most overrated ipo.
That article is pathetic..... Its a website people, what is the big deal. Myspace is about 10-20X bigger than Facebook will ever be. Why is Facebook getting all this hype, its just another 2.0 website, thats all it is....
Couldnt agree more, in the next 5 years many wont even remember what facebook is. Look at friendster, slowly disappearing. Myspace still has the lead and will continue lead until social networking sights start fading away.