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Future of Advertising is Data: Facebook's Numbers Staggering - 800 million users; 500 million active per day

This article is more than 10 years old.

Facebook's insanely rapid growth is well documented as well as their initial public offering (and insane valuation). It was reported last month that Facebook is looking at the April to June 2012 timeframe to raise $10 billion in an IPO. As Facebook ramps up for their IPO they are riding high with an impressive user base. To me the most impressive milestone around Facebook is the impressive stats around their user base.

Inside the Facebook Numbers

Total Registered Users: 800 million

Total Active Daily Users: 500 million

Total Mobile Users: 350 million

Apps & Websites Integrated in Facebook Platform: 7 million

Total Photo's Shared on Halloween: > 1 billion

Facebook's scale and user number are quite impressive. Can they keep the growth up? Just like Google the more Internet users that are online the more growth Facebook can achieve.

Facebook's IPO Valuation Insane - Maybe Not?

Facebook's valuation estimated at $100 billion is insane by any standard, but is it?

When Google went public we all thought there was no way that Google could sustain their insanely high IPO valuation with banner advertising - the ad standard at the time. Instead, Google exploded their revenue model with a new way called Pay per Click (PPC) advertising. That was the game changer.

Facebook is in the same boat as Google was when Google went public. Will they create new standard revenue model?

If Facebook tries to monetize with today's ad standards PPC then they can't sustain their IPO valuation. However, Facebook might have a few new things up their sleeve just like Google had with PPC advertising. The question needs to be asked how will Facebook change the advertising game? If Facebook can monetize their users in a new way that is different then today's current PPC standard then Facebook's valuation might not be that insane.

I am speculating that Facebook will leverage "data" to be their game changer that will change the economics of advertising. If Facebook can maintain their product utility and keep the activity growing then their only choice is to monetize with data. Any other solution will create a bad user experience.

Facebook will be Data Driven.

{John Furrier is the founder and CEO of the SiliconANGLE.com Network - the fastest growing tech blog in Silicon Valley covering cloud computing, mobile, social, and big data - visit SiliconANGLE.com or SiliconANGLE.tv for all the indepth technology angles}