Facebook Wants to Be Your Online Bank
Someday soon, Facebook users may pay their utility bills, balance their checkbooks, and transfer money at the same time they upload vacation photos to the site for friends to see.
Someday soon, Facebook users may pay their utility bills, balance their checkbooks, and transfer money at the same time they upload vacation photos to the site for friends to see.
On Monday, Facebook's stock fell from its IPO price of $38 to a low of (as of this writing) $33.60. So what? Nobody who actually paid attention to Facebook's statements before the IPO should be surprised by this latest turn, or even worried. Here's why:
Facebook finally set its IPO price Thursday evening: $38 a share, for a record-setting value of $104 billion on the social media giant. Is it worth it? Who knows. But despite the skeptics, there are definitely ways to make money from all those Facebook users' eyeballs.
The rough economy has spurred a nationwide trend toward thrift and reuse, and nothing exemplifies that quite like Pinterest. The social photo- and idea-sharing website is more than just an electronic corkboard: It's a money-saving, life-hacking virtual community.
The average Facebook user spends more than eight hours a month on the site, and many of us spend much, much more. What you might not realize is how much actual spending all that social networking leads to.
In Facebook's largest acquisition to date, the social media giant says it will spend $1 billion to buy the photo-sharing software company Instagram.
What if Facebook's IPO offering isn't actually outlandishly priced? What if $100 billion is actually a reasonable price? Let's go over a few of the reasons Facebook stock may be cheaper than worrywarts are leading you to believe.
Now that Facebook has filed its IPO paperwork, we've gotten our first real glimpse at the inner workings of the world's largest social networking website. No shock, the company's fundamentals are impressive, but here are a few of the numbers that may surprise you -- and what they mean.
Hyper-connection means missing an email, text, Tweet or status update -- or a moment of the Kardashians. But is that a good thing? Are we too connected? And if the answer is yes, is it even possible to back away from the smartphones and social media and go back to our old-fashioned ways?
Regulators are warning the public to be wary of social media sites that could be offering bogus investment schemes. The warning follows civil charges filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against an Illinois-based investment adviser who tried to sell fraudulent securities through Linkedin.
Credit card rewards are the new social currency. Citibank customers can now use Facebook to pool their rewards points online. The bank on Tuesday launched a Facebook application that lets users team up to use their points, whether it's for charity, a group gift or a personal goal. Citi says it's the first bank to offer such a feature.
If you're not familiar with Zynga, the undisputed champ of social gaming, odds are that you're not a fixture on Facebook or into smartphone app gaming. This month, it rolls the dice on a big public offering. Are you game?
Ah, Facebook: It's where you banter with "friends," share vacation photos and "like" everything from candy bars to political parties -- so why not shop there, too? Now, retailers are making it easier to do just that.
Are you hungry for a piece of the Facebook IPO? If so, then pull up a chair. There's plenty of room at the table ... because the other guests are fleeing. After months when all we've heard is that this (eventual) stock sale will be the hottest thing since Google, the hype trend has reversed.
Back in July 2005, the deal seemed so promising. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp bought MySpace parent Intermix Media for $580 million. The social media pioneer was, by some measures, the fifth most-visited website in the U.S. This week, MySpace was sold for a fraction of that amount.














