Teen Traders' Blog

Hello guys,

‘m Sorry to be posting after some time now. Anyways ‘ve been looking at all these social networks. Most of us use social networks and many are there on the three largest social networks viz. Facebook, Myspace, Twitter. I ‘m (Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/fahimkazi. Twitter: https://twitter.com/fahimkazi).

But what do you use the most. Facebook, yeah, Twitter, hell yeah, Myspace somewhat. even though i am not much fond of Myspace, my friends who were, now don’t sit much on Myspace. But whatever, day after day, we keep on loosing interest on a particular site and keeping on moving with whatever’s the best or more exciting then the other. How many of you remember Orkut? Yeah i know it sucks now. But once when there wasn’t much fame around Facebook, Orkut was the rage. Let me tell i was one crazy guy after Orkut. I LOVED it. Why? I Already had Yahoo with me, i did like making friends on Yahoo Chat, I use to chat with my friendson Yahoo. Then what drove me to Orkut. ‘m not sure myself. Maybe integration of everything(communities, friends and later apps). I used to sit on Orkut before i left for school(9th grade then) after i returned from school then after I returned from classes then finally before i went to sleep.

Then what drove me OFF from Orkut. Nothing really. Just got BORED. Scrapping was good, but it was enough. Communities were good but not as interesting as they used to be. I then moved to Facebook. Let me tell you again i still like Facebook. But i can feel it in me now that i ‘m starting to loose interest from Facebook. even though Facebook caught hold of me more than Orkut could due to its Apps, but still I just dont find the apps “exciting” and “happening” anymore.

I’m now starting to like Twitter now. I know that i ‘m late to Twitter, but still “Better Late then Never.”

And about Myspace. well, it attracted a huge crowd in the beginning(and still does) but it has also seen a drop in monthly visitors to 70.24 million in May. I know that number is huge but if action isn’t taken to revive the site, the numbers hall keep on falling. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg once told in an interview that in three years Facebook shall have a stern business plan. Given the huge audience, Facebook can surely do something.

Not to forget,  the two Social Networks, Facebook and Myspace are loss making. News Corp reported an $89 million loss in the unit that includes MySpace in its most recent quarterly report. Facebook’s numbers are not sure but it is also believed to be loss making. And talking about Twitter, well it just doesn’t have a Revenue model yet and hasn’t made any money(after 11.7 million users).

But still they are the talk of the Internet world, referred everywhere, constantly in the news. That gets the founders the funding.  Myspace’s parent company Intermix Media was bought in July 2005 for US$580 million by News Corp out of which US$327 million is believed to be for Myspace. Facebook has received a total funding of $716M accordingto CrunchBase. Whereas Twitter which does not have a Revenue model yet has received a total funding of $55M.

While these businesses have remained unprofitable, businesses around these businesses have raked in the moolah. There are hundreds of companies making apps to integrate them in Facebook(I shall soon have my own app company). Many Twitter based companies are providing third party applications for Twitter and having fine businesses.

So in the end what gets the high valuations for these companies? The surge in users. The hope from investors that a huge audience might somehow convert into profits whereas the founders are still searching for revenue models to make money.

Twitter which has fast grown to be the third most popular social network on the planet just got a little more famous. The microblogging service is now also used for organizing political dissent. Twitter’s administers realised about Twitters political powers on Monday.

 All this happened when Twitter was going to offline for upgrades and have a 90 minutes of downtime at 9:45 PDT . when it was announced in the afternoon that Twitter shall be off for a 90 minute period, the thousands of Iranian dissidents protesting alleged fraud in the national election- who were using the service flooded the thousands of requests to Twiiter to delay the maintenance downtime.

A Twitterer named “tinyi”(even i’ll look forward to following him) wrote “Twitter, do not condemn the people of Iran to silence.”  “Upgrades can wait. The people dying in Iran cannot,” pleaded a Twitterer by the name of hoopiest_frood.  ”Democracy needs you, Twitter!” -temp09.

“Our network partners at NTT America recognize the role Twitter is currently playing as an important communication tool in Iran,” Biz Stone twitter co-founder wrote on his blog.  And he wrote that Twitter had worked out a deal with its network provider, NTT America, to delay the maintenance.

North Korea launched yet another short range missile on Friday, the sixth in the week. The country has threatened to retaliate if punitive UN sanctions are imposed for its latest nuclear tests. US officials say that there are sins that Pyongyang maybe planning more long-range missiles.

The dwarf country on th East defences it self by telling that the missile launches are just for self-defence and argues that there has been 2,053 nuclear tests in the world so far and this one in their country was the 2054th nuclear tests.

The country’s foreign ministry told in a statement carried out by its official news network, Korean Central News Agency,”There is a limit to our PATIENCE.” Referring to the 2053 nuclear tests conducted in the world so far, it said, “The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council have conducted 99.99 percent of the total nuclear tests.” A valid point.

Though Washington confirmed that it shall take strict actions and respond quickly if security of America or its Asian Allies are threatened ,things don’t seem to be happening soon as North Korea is preparing itself for land-to- sea missiles and launched the surface to air missile on Friday.

Things just don’t smell good.

On Tuesday Facebook confirmed that it received $200 million from Russian investment group Digital Sky Technologies in exchange for a 2% stake.The investment gives DST 2% stock of the company of the Palo Alto based private company. The deal has valued Facebook at $10 Billion, 33% lower than Microsoft’s $15 Billion valuation when it acquired a 1.6% stake in the company for $240 Million in October 2007. DST said in a statement, “Facebook has the potential to be one of the most profitable internet companies ever.” Given its vast Audience, it surely can.

Does the valuation mean that Facebook is now worth less than what it was a year back? CEO Zuckerberg says ” I wouldn’t say that.”

Last month Facebook surpassed 200 million users and is fast Growing. It is estimated that Facebook had revenues exceeding $300 million in 2008. Analysts say that Facebook hasn’t been able to profit yet due to its huge user base and its inability to advertise effectively to the huge and fragmented audience. But in October,2008, Zuckerberg did say that Facebook shall have a Business Plan in 3 years.

Twitter, the fast or VERY fast growing social network site which has roughly 55Mn monthly visits has now attracted the Biggies in the valley. Everyone just wants to be a part of the highly popular network. Google CEO Eric Schmidt wants a search deal with Google. And rumours suggest that Big M wants to buy it.

But that doesn’t seem to be the thought of the co-founders as yet.  Twitter co-founder Biz Stone went on “The view” today and told the ladies there that twitter is NOT for sale . Yes thats what. ” WE ARE NOT FOR SALE.”

Even fellow cofounders Ev Williams and have expressed feelings about their preference to be independent at least for now.

What is Twitter?

A social Network would be the answer , but its too much Fun and u just end up reading and tweeting the moment u sign in.

Twitter has been ranked 3rd by Compete.com as the 3rd most used social networks. And knowing the worths of the first two (Facebook And MySpace) certainly gets the idea about how much would be the Sites worth. Even though Facebook and MySpace is far ahead and it might not be possible for Twitter to take even the second spot for now but a Neilson .com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest growing sites in the Member Communities category for Fevruary 2009. Twitter had a Mind Boggling growth rate of 1382%.

But still Twitter which by now has $57mn of VC money. It is Backed by Union Square Ventures, Digital Garage, Spark Capital, and Bezos Expeditions (led by Jeff Bezos of Amazon). On Feb 13 2009 it announced on it official blog that it has raised an additional $35Mn in a third round of funding. On being asked about how was he going to use the funds, Twitter CEO and Co-Founder, Williams said   “We don’t know all the ways we’re going to use that money, hopefully we’ll keep a lot of it in the bank. If we never need a lot of it, that’s great, but in the climate we’re in we don’t want to assume too much, and we don’t want any short term concerns to distort the potential of our long term vision, and our investors and the boards and everybody is very on board for building a very long term viable company. We need to do that step by step, and we need to invest a lot to get there.”

So there when there is a good offer for it, the VCs are not going to allow the co-founders to have all the talk. And evrybody thinks that Twitter can now be handed of to a bigger Father, Maybe Microsoft, Google or even Yahoo.

We’ll have to wait and watch…!!