Archive for February, 2012
3 Weeks With The iPhone 4S: The S Is For Slick
Feb. 6, ‘12: I’ve been an every-other-iPhone buyer, so after getting the iPhone 4 in 2010, I was planning to skip the iPhone 4S and wait for whatever’s next. But with all the international travel I’m planning to do this year for my … Continue reading →
Amazon reportedly developing a retail store in Seattle
Feb. 6, ‘12: If this report, by Michael Kozlowski for Good E-Reader, is true, it actually makes some sense. Never mind the age-old Amazon sales tax issue: I’ve been paying tax on Amazon orders in New York for years, and my willingness to … Continue reading →
Facebook’s Payments Business Is Already 15% The Size Of PayPal — Sort Of
Feb. 4, ‘12: Facebook’s IPO filing this week revealed that its payments business is growing at a healthy clip, and represented 15% of Facebook’s revenue last year. (Up to 17% of its sales during the fourth quarter.) How does it compare to eBay’s … Continue reading →
The ‘Eggs In One Basket’ Index
Feb. 3, ‘12: Earlier, I noted how Facebook’s advertising business generated 85% of its revenue last year, down from 95% in 2010, as its payments business is helping it diversify away from ads. Then I saw this post by Ed Bott, comparing Microsoft, … Continue reading →
Why Microsoft will inevitably try to buy Nokia or RIM
Feb. 3, ‘12: MG Siegler points out that Apple’s iPhone business is bigger than all of Microsoft. Once you get over the historical weirdness of that, it makes sense: Would you rather pocket hundreds of dollars per phone sold? Or ~$15 in license … Continue reading →
‘It’s people! Facebook, is made out of people!’
Feb. 3, ‘12: Nice article by Farhad Manjoo at Slate identifying, on a high level, Facebook’s unique challenge: Even though Facebook is named after a real-world object, the site has no analogue in the offline world—before social networks, the idea of a worldwide … Continue reading →
How Does Facebook Make Money?
Feb. 3, ‘12: Facebook’s IPO filing this week confirmed what we already knew: Facebook makes the vast majority of its money by selling ads on its site. But now we know just how much of its revenue comes from advertising: 85% in 2011, … Continue reading →
Facebook IPO chart porn
Feb. 3, ‘12: There’s lots of interesting data in Facebook’s IPO filing, and I’ve highlighted and visualized some of it for ReadWriteWeb. Did you know, for instance, that 57% of Facebook’s monthly users worldwide visit on an average day? (But that it’s more … Continue reading →
Tracking the Facebook IPO coverage
Feb. 1, ‘12: Facebook filed for an IPO today; here’s a link to the SEC filing. The best place to follow what’s in it — both the important and the trivial — actually seems to be a well-curated Twitter timeline. I don’t think … Continue reading →
