Last week I did an interview on radio 2SER on Facebook’s IPO and its future. You can listen to a podcast of the interview below.
A few key points I covered:
* Mark Zuckerberg was keen to keep the company private, but the number of shareholders reached the point at which they had to disclose information, so there was no reason to wait to do an IPO
* The billions they raise could be used to build a social commerce platform and develop its financial services
* The primary driving intention is to change the world, however as a public company they are responsible for their shareholders
* Revenue is currently around 85% advertising, including a significant part internal promotion of Facebook pages, and also Facebook Credits
* Consumer response to personalized advertising will drive the future potential of not just Facebook, but other social networks and media companies
* Facebook makes far less money from mobile than web, which is a key challenge as social network usage shifts to mobile
* Facebook is getting closer to saturation in many developed countries, so growth in its number of users will come primarily from countries such as India, Brazil, Russia, and potentially China
* Funds from the IPO may help to drive even faster innovation, not least through acquisitions
* Facebook aspires to be at the center of our lives, including for shopping and financial services
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