Friends Of STAR

I rarely use Facebook. Not that I don't like it but I found it lacking in term of privacy protection. Furthermore, I am not the type who shows the world what I own or don't own or at what time I get up and so on. Another reason is addiction. Facebook is addictive and they even have a term for it, FAD or Facebook Addiction Disorder though this is not an actual medical diagnosis. But there are more and more people who've crossed the line from social networking to social dysfunction. Incidentally, Facebook is also the most frequently blocked web site in the world. 

At the last count count there were about 800 million users of Facebook worldwide and soon it will reach 1 billion. It is estimated that almost 10 millions (and rising) Malaysians use Facebook. Of course, the figure is not real because some people have more than one Facebook account. Most have two - one for personal and one for family. Normally you do this to avoid your family from seeing who are your opposite-sex friends or your gay friends.

Facebook opened to the world in 2006 though it started much earlier than that in various colleges and universities.

And next week Facebook is going to file for an IPO in USA. It is looking to raise US$10 billion at a valuation of between US75 billion to US100 billion. At that valuation it will make Facebook the largest tech IPO of all time. And it will be the seventh largest in US history and will propel Facebook on par with the likes of McDonald's Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Visa Inc. and Bank of America Corp. For comparison, Google raised only US$1.7 billions in 2004.

And guess what? Facebook which employs 3,000 people will create 1,500 millionaires (in US$ and not MYR) through that IPO.

And what about the founders and the big bosses? The big gainer is of course its founder Mark Zuckerberg. He is only 27 but with the IPO his net worth will become US$17.5 billion. Dustin Moskovitz, also 27, a co-founder will see his net worth rise to US$3.5 billion. Another co-founder, Eduardo Saverin will be worth around US$2 billion.

And the Winklevoss twins? Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss claimed Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea and sued him in court for US$1 billion. They lost but accepted US$20 million cash payment and some shares from Facebook. That could now worth more than US$150 million.