Monday Note

Like many startups, Facebook is confronted with a growth problem. Its outstanding traffic (30-35m unique visitors a month) is no longer growing; newcomers tend not to stay with the service as much as the early adopters still do; the Google-induced OpenSocial protocol is a threat and advertising has not taken off as promised. Recently, the investors in Facebook imposed teenage supervision of a kind: they hired Sheryl Sandberg, a former Google executive (see her interview at the D6 Conference)

Facebook is under more pressure from its investors as explained in New York Times DealBook. There, a professor of economics brilliantly reminds Mark Zuckerberg what are the rules of high tech funding. (For an overview of the social network current situation read also the story in Fortune)

Related columns:

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2. media finances — Shareholders pressure and the bubble TweetThe examples stated above epitomize the increasing pressure of shareholders activists. The CBS/CNet deal has been, for a large part, prompted by an angry campaign led by the investment firm Jana Partners LLC. Jana criticized CNet strategy and called for a complete overhaul of the board. Actually, more and more media companies are facing shareholder [...]...
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