Meta Platforms Inc (META)

[nopancakemix]

Uh I Did Vaguely Mention Instagram
I mentioned that FaceBook is purchasing companies in order to stay relevant, ie acquiring Instagram and unsuccessfully bidding a couple bil for SnapChat. And exactly how was FB going to monetize those entities?Can't do ad revenues cause users will leave. Can't charge for something that has been given for free without serious backlash. Instagram is the only social media I have ever used and I really liked it for a while, but when random freaks started following and FB announced they own the rights to users photos, I closed my account immediately.

edit
Instagram's popularity growth is only anecdotal, having nothings to do with returns. It reminds me of Pets.com or Etoys in 1999, the number 1 and 2 "most visited", "fastest growing" websites during the boom. And how did that work out for them while they tried to convert that hype into sales? Last I checked those companies are long extinct.

As for the reply discussing people worldwide using FB to stay in touch...I have family all over the world who I keep in touch with via email, cell phone, video chat, photostreams....and we do it all for free, without ads cluttering up the digital encounters, without building a virtual FBI profile of ourselves on a public forum. How is FaceBook going to make Direct Revenues from those customers you speak of? Currently, with the exception of FarmVille and meager game revenues compared to FB's supposed value, FB really only draws indirect revenues from advertisers not from users. Even newspapers and magazines drew revenues from both sources but look how they have fared.

Regardless, this is all subjective business model nit picking. The real concern for me is the insane valuation compared to earnings. Those numbers do not add up and the last time I was so sure of such a discrepancy was when I shorted Krispy Kreme Donuts in the early 2000s.

For the fella I am replying to with this post, my education is far more complete than you may know. Don't underestimate your adversaries.