[dorlomin]

Nope, its the way the internet has been evolving for years headed towards those kind of technologies. Think Myspace. It was intended as a way for bands to share music but basically got used as Facebook before anyone came up with facebook. There were quite a few challangers to Facebook such as Beebo before the FB got the critical mass. Facebook is practically inevitable.

Twitter is a touch more of a suprise but again the big blogging sites were getting really popular and people were using them in the same way as facebook, reducing it down to less words was a master stroke as you no longer needed a thoughtful blog post.

[Pops]

PO.com was founded on the same idea as FB, same month actually. People are social and like to think their trivial ideas and lives are important - look at my post count! LOL

I've never been to Admin's bunker but I don't think he's a plant or agent provocateur - we already have each of those positions taken for that matter.

[Shaved Monkey]

They would be mad if they didn't
Cheap intell at the flick of a mouse

[babystrangeloop]

Why did you post this in Current Events? It's not a current event.

[gollum]

I'm sure at this point they data mine facebook, probably for trends as much as any actionable intel. It's pretty useful for a government to have a real time look at how many of it's own citizens love or hate it.

[ian807]

Not necessary. For no budgetary outlay, private enterprise has provided an effective method of self-surveillance. Of course, FB and Twitter are monitored, but so is everything, including PO. We, however, are not considered a current threat (At my age, this is depressingly accurate).

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2012-04/69317565.jpg[/img]

How Instagram founder Kevin Systrom became insta-rich

SAN FRANCISCO — How does a 28-year-old make $400 million in 18 months?

With the right idea at the right time in mobile apps for smartphones.

Kevin Systrom won the start-up sweepstakes this week when Facebook Inc. said it would pay $1 billion in cash and stock for his photo-sharing app maker, which has a loyal following of 30 million users but never made a dime.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/technology/la-fi-instagram-systrom-20120411,0,7079228.story

[Duende]

There's a few things going on here:

First, $1 billion is a crazy amount of money. Second, I have difficulty imagining how these internet companies than produce intangible products and services could possibly be worth their valuations. That probably says more about me than anything else. But really - where is the value?

These internet companies seem to be at the heart of a new, exuberant optimism about the state of things to come. I listen to some radio shows about these tech innovators, and much of what they 'produce' are products in search of problems. I didn't ask for any of this crap; they just kind of create it and see if it sticks. And evidently some of it does.

Let me quickly run down the list of some of the top dogs:
Apple: I probably own 2 or so iPods but never use them anymore. Now I use my Droid phone as my mp3 player. As for the iPad - don't get me wrong, I like dragging my finger across a backlit screen as much as anybody, but I just can't understand the mania.
Google: I quit Google at the end of February before they instituted their Skynet maneuver. I don't miss them one bit, but I did have some issues with my phone after I shut down my gmail account.
Facebook: I have an account that I almost never check anymore. Facebook has become a reminder to me about why certain people from my past remained in my past (until Facebook came around).
Twitter: Have never used it. I really don't get this one at all. 140 character messages cannot possibly carry enough content to be of any interest to me.
Instagram: InstaWhat? Never heard of it until the other day. Congrats to the founders, though.
Groupon: Never ever offers a deal that I'm interested in. Seems to focus on higher-end stuff that still seems overpriced after the discount.

The way boosters talk about some of these companies, you'd think their gonna save the economy. But you're right, Six. These companies don't employee large numbers of people and that's what it's going to take to get the economy moving again.

It may just be my shortsightedness or pessimism, but I can't see how this phenomenon continues in the face of resource depletion and the myriad other issues coming down the road.

In the meantime, I'll continue finding this phenomenon interesting, silly, and a little strange.

[dolanbaker]

All of these products are an advertisment executives dream! The ads are right in the face of the consumers who are "actively" informing the content server their likes and dislikes etc.

Plus the fact that many of the users of these aps are in the "free spending" catagory, and are likely to buy the products advertised. Companies are paying big bucks for these services and passing the costs onto the consumers.

[The Practician]

I'm really starting to wonder myself about how internet companies can be "worth" so much. where are these billions coming from? what do they do? where do they go? Maybe this kind of crap (apps for I phones to make the pictures taken with it's 5 megapixel camera look like they were taken with a cheap camera from the 60's) Is this all there is left to "invest" in in an age where the "real" stuff that makes Western consumer society tick is no longer profitable.

I'm not usually one to make precise predictions, but we may look back on this instagram sale as the Pets.com of 2012.

[SeaGypsy]

It's revenue from advertisers. If your site gets a bazzillion hits from single cashed up 1st worlders your sidebars are worth big biccies.

[ralfy]

We live in a world where total money supply is more than a quadrillion dollars, with much of it consisting of "shadow" derivatives and future government liabilities. Almost all of it consists of numbers in accounts.

[Newfie]

Right Ralfy, money is losing its connection to "value."

Eventually it will get so out of line that the money bubble itself will burst, if something else doesn't intervene in the meantime.

After being an early adapter most of my 60 years recently I have been retreating from technology. I got off the band wagon.

It is interesting to see how fast I have been left in the dust as the cacophony careens over the next hill.

It's kinda nice sitting hear in the relative quiet, I get to see and explore some of the natural scenery they blow by.

[dorlomin]

Facebooks revenue is about $4.25 per user.

Thats right to generate is $3.7 billion it only needs to sell $4 a bit of advertising per user per year.

For that though they have some of the largest server farms in the world. The job they have is too keep some giantic (petabytes and beyond) sized huge interactive databases rolling so the users never see a glitch.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('dorlomin', 'F')acebooks revenue is about $4.25 per user.

Thats right to generate is $3.7 billion it only needs to sell $4 a bit of advertising per user per year.

For that though they have some of the largest server farms in the world. The job they have is too keep some giantic (petabytes and beyond) sized huge interactive databases rolling so the users never see a glitch.

[SeaGypsy]

Not true. Indonesia and India are hot sales points for small vehicles and high tech phones, fashion, education. Same with the rest of SE Asia. Indian friends tell me the wireless broadband there is way better than Australia's, due to our idiotic addiction to cabled service. There are more dollar millionaires in India than there are people in Australia.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')img]http://www.marketplace.org/sites/marketplace.org/files/styles/primary-image-610x340/public/saverin.jpg[/img]

Facebook is set to go public this week, which is going to create some overnight billionaires. One of them is Eduardo Saverin, who helped start the company.

But news recently came out that Saverin has renounced his U.S. citizenship, meaning he will apparently avoid about $600 million in taxes on his new wealth.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/mid-day-update/facebook-co-founder-renounces-us-citizenship

[mattduke]

Clearly he should not be allowed to leave. Build the Freedom Wall higher. Obama needs this amount for air conditioning for US troops in Afghanistan. Starving the war machine is your duty as a human being, war slave.

[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mattduke', 'C')learly he should not be allowed to leave. Build the Freedom Wall higher. Obama needs this amount for air conditioning for US troops in Afghanistan. Starving the war machine is your duty as a human being, war slave.

[efarmer]

There is an honorable way to accomplish this same thing. You stay an American, you take some millions and put it into a SuperPAC. It is sloppier, but you create a candidate via media buys and spirit them into power, once there, they give you and your industry a gravy train deal or tax exemption and your patriotism is rewarded.

The little people after all, need the top 1% to pick them candidates, and tell them what to do once installed and gladly tile up tax dollars in return. It is what we little people do, and we are good at it. The little people don't roll like this for "Durn Furiners" we need role models with a factory in China, money in the Cayman's, and a dozen or more marionettes in Washington D.C. in position to macrame' the people's purse strings for them.

Facebook has allowed us to know what our nearest and dearest are eating for lunch, what TV shows they are watching, and where they sat at concerts and sporting events so we can be jealous as hell. What is even better, is you get to make it up when you post.
Efarmer:

" went to the Hockey Playoffs again last night in a limo with four gorgeous gals, and as usual, he had box seats right behind home plate. Lucky sucker brought his glove and caught 7 pucks which he sold on Ebay for $300 each and made a cool grand on the game to boot."

What's on your mind?