Since Goldman Sachs’ $500 million investment into Facebook, the news has been full of speculation as to the actual value of social networking site.
So far it is believed that Facebook has raised more than $800 million over five rounds of funding. Meaning that with this round the social network will have raised over $1.3 billion.
One newspaper that has tried to place a value on Facebook is the New York Times, who estimated that this round of investment has set Facebook’s value at an impressive $50 billion.
The site All Things Digital provided context to this striking valuation by breaking down JP Morgan’s, Imran Khan’s Internet analyst’s forecast for 2011.Below is a selection of their key findings:
Despite Facebook not yet having the same reach as Google and Yahoo in America, it is still growing at an exceptional rate worldwide and it is predicted to catch up on the traditional Internet leaders in the foreseeable future.
However an alternative measure between the leading websites shows that Facebook is currently the market leader in time spent on the site. Furthermore it should be noted that Facebook is experiencing impressive growth in this sector, while Yahoo is in decline and Google has stayed the same.
It is not only in minutes spent on the Facebook, that it is quickly becoming a benchmark for other online companies. Facebook also experiences spectacular customer loyalty, with over half of its users visiting the site daily.
However, perhaps most interesting in the context of Facebook’s value is its role it plays in referring traffic to other websites. This is explained when you put the social networking site in direct comparison with the traditional leader in this field Google.
It’s unclear what Facebook will do with this new money raised. Two possible options raised by Wordinvestor appear particularly likely:
It could cash out some of its employees and existing investors with that money or go on a hiring spree,’ although they conclude by stating ‘it has so much money now that it will likely do both.”
