Flicker Fusion

So, if tripling the size of the social network to 3,000,000,000 users is not going to be enough to justify its valuation with its current revenue per user, there is only one strategic direction for Facebook to go. It needs to generate more revenue per user. A lot more.

So, if tripling the size of the social network to 3,000,000,000 users is not going to be enough to justify its valuation with its current revenue per user, there is only one strategic direction for Facebook to go. It needs to generate more revenue per user. A lot more.

—Alexis Madrigal says there’s really only one number that matters in Facebook’s IPO filing: the amount of money it makes per user, currently around $5.

its a fair point and i considered using citizen

It’s a fair point and I considered using “citizen” here for that very reason. Since I was talking about consumer protection and there are numerous ways in which governments are charged with “protecting citizens”, I stuck with the semantic bastardization in favor of specificity.

In Europe, in the United States, throughout the world, we need to make sure we are investing — we are investing in technology, we are investing in basic education so that people can take advantage of these tools. We want to make sure we have the right regulatory environment — a regulatory environment that promotes innovation and economic growth.

In Europe, in the United States, throughout the world, we need to make sure we are investing — we are investing in technology, we are investing in basic education so that people can take advantage of these tools. We want to make sure we have the right regulatory environment — a regulatory environment that promotes innovation and economic growth.

—

Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, speaking at the Digital Life Design conference in Munich, seems to be saying that privacy and economic growth are incompatible.

This is, of course, the exact response you’d expect from someone who’s personally made millions (billions?) of dollars exploiting people’s privacy. Facebook is sure to be wary of some strict new privacy regulations that the EU is recommending.

I loathe Sandberg’s line of reasoning here, that somehow protecting consumer rights is antithetical to making money. Protecting consumers, to my mind, is one of the purposes of government, particularly in a world where corporations have increasing power over our everyday lives, are ever more resistant to self-policing and are bigger, richer and more global than has ever been known in history.

It strikes me that this may be one of the greatest differences between the theories of government in Europe and the United States. I’m becoming more and more wary of a government that insists on protecting the powerful on the backs of the powerless.

A $250 billion per year loss would be almost $800 for every man, woman, and child in America. And 750,000 jobs – that’s twice the number of those employed in the entire motion picture industry in 2010.

The good news is that the numbers are wrong. In 2010, the Government Accountability Office released a report noting that these figures “cannot be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,” which is polite government-speak for “these figures were made up out of thin air.”

A $250 billion per year loss would be almost $800 for every man, woman, and child in America. And 750,000 jobs – that’s twice the number of those employed in the entire motion picture industry in 2010.

The good news is that the numbers are wrong. In 2010, the Government Accountability Office released a report noting that these figures “cannot be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,” which is polite government-speak for “these figures were made up out of thin air.”

—The Freakonomics guys call bullshit on the MPAA’s piracy numbers.