Who isn’t actually on Facebook these days? I am willing to bet you are a Facebooker, and all your mates, perhaps even your Mum but probably not your Dad. That’s because over 30 million of us in the UK are fully fledged FB’ers, astonishingly that’s nearly half of the population, not even Coca Cola have that kind of market leverage.
As recently as last week, Facebook released a statement stating that they are preparing an IPO for the second quarter of 2012, and it has a slated a value of $100bn…please say that number again, if all goes according to plan, Facebook the company founded in a bedroom less than 10 years ago, will be worth $100bn. Never has a company ever ‘floated’ on one of the worlds stock exchanges at a value even close to $100bn!
So why am I getting very excited about Facebook getting even richer? Well unfortunately Mellor&Scott do not hold any shares in Facebook so we won’t be getting a bonus from the big sale however I am very excited about a Facebook ‘float’ for 2 reasons:
- Design and Marketing have been at the forefront of Facebook’s huge growth.
- The growing opportunities for creative businesses like Mellor&Scott to use the Facebook platform when working with our clients.
I am very happy that Design and Marketing have been instrumental in the growth of Facebook, some within the creative industry are arguing that it is a great scoop that a business that is so heavily design focussed is growing at such a fantastic rate. Lets look at the facts, Facebook didn’t invent the social media platform, when Facebook launched Myspace was the largest platform on the internet, but the usability and brand issues that Myspace struggled with were in stark contrast to the easy-to-use, accessible and friendly GUI that Facebook was using. The design and branding skill that went into Facebook on day one have been carried through and are presently still seen as instrumental to the ongoing growth.
The aims of traditional platforms or channels on which advertising and marketing is broadcast onto haven’t changed, brand owners have always wanted to get mass market traction with big expensive campaigns. They have historically comparatively struggled with below the line marketing, because direct access to consumers has historically been difficult. However with the internet and now social media these barriers are reduced dramatically. This is where Facebook is brilliant, because each Facebook user has filled in their details, Facebook records which profiles, groups and fan pages each user navigates to, thus building up a clear and detailed picture of the interests, loves, and spending power of each user – that information is gold dust to marketeers and advertisers. They target there products to people who are already interested in their product, they can be specific in the message and proposition.
How can we prove this is so successful? In 2010 Facebook generated revenue in excess of $2bn in 2011 it is set to be $4.2bn. A huge jump in growth of 114% generated through selling its platform to more brand owners and bigger margins. The potential is massive, I think the potential is so big that it is immeasurable, but what is measurable is that no other company has this much potential and therefore Facebook is the most valuable company in the world.
Paul Mellor