Websites Worth? Reality or Fiction

[phil67]

Keep reading in the paper the likes of Facebook etc are worth loads of wonga, but how come in my opinion surely the advertising income doesn't make it worth that much or does it?

So how is the measurement made of its worth?

So here are some information / social sites what is there worth?

Lets start with

Twitter
Skype
Wikepedia
Vec C
Wooksie

[Rebellion]

Faceebook's "value" is part of a bubble - hype that social networking sites will bring in billions of dollars in revenue over the next few years, regardless of whether they make much money at the moment. It's called a bubble because it could burst at any moment - as soon as the next big thing comes along and people stop using FB, the value will tumble.

Remember when Myspace was considered the future? Ruper Murdoch's NewsCorp bought it in 2005 for half a billion dollars - and probably thought they were getting a bargain. They sold it last year for $35 million. Why the drop in value? Because it's yesterday's news. ITV did a similar thing with Friends Reunited - bought it at an inflated price and sold it for a fraction of that. When was the last time anyone here bothered logging into their Friends Reunited account? FB will go the same way.

[Penfold101]

Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it...

[m8internet]

The advertising revenue is just one stream of income
There will be other sources of revenue
With respect to Facebook commercial companies are paying for their presence, which may appear as normal pages (examples are tesco, cadbury, etc)

During the .com boom, the website value was based on traditional advertising, which was flawed, and is typically based on 3 years revenue

This has since been revised to include number of visits AND subscribers, and this is where the second generation .com websites make their value

Next is the volatility value
Facebook is pretty much an established brand, but could quite easily by overtaken by the "next big thing"
I personally think this is quite likely and in 10 years time we will be saying "remember Facebook"