# Economics Question: What are people expecting Facebooks stock to do? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 20, 2012, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501 "2012-05-20T09:38:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501/41 "2012-05-22T02:36:59Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > How many of FB’s 800-million strong users are in poor, 3rd world countries..and have virtually NO purchasing power? > It is like setting up a WalMart in a poor village in India-lotsa people, but no money. How many of them use adblock or similar browser plugins? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501/42 "2012-05-22T02:55:15Z")
More importantly if these hypothetical users in poor third world countries have virtually no purchasing power, how does Ralph imagine that they are accessing and maintaining their Facebook accounts? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501/43 "2012-05-22T03:13:39Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > More importantly if these hypothetical users in poor third world countries have virtually no purchasing power, how does Ralph imagine that they are accessing and maintaining their Facebook accounts? It doesn’t take a lot of purchasing power to pay for 20 minutes at the Internet cafe. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501/44 "2012-05-22T03:31:15Z")
Mark Zuckerberg just does not seem to have what the other major tech players have. He is no Bill Gates or Steve Jobs, Page, Berin or the like. He has no new or better innovation. He beat out MySpace just with a cleaner interface and a little exclusiveness at the beginning. That was about it. No business genius there. He has not in a significant way broadened FB’s offerings. He was at the right place at the right time just like the others I mentioned but has not made any interesting business deals. If the next acquisition is as lame as instagram this company is doomed. So far he has not made it to difficult to jump ship to a competitor like other great tech companies. He must do this. He wont. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501/45 "2012-05-22T16:56:10Z")
> [@D\_Odds](#): > > Market caps? I would much rather look at earnings-per-share, and even better projected 5-year earnings-per-share. Right now, GOOG’s current EPS is $32.99, about 7 times higher than JPM’s $4.50. Given that GOOG’s price is ~20 times higher than JPM’s, investors are expecting much greater earning’s growth from GOOG than they are from JPM. So I would say that the expectation of growth in earnings (as a percentage of current earnings, not as an absolute number) lies between the 1.6\* you suggest and the 20\* **Exapno** posits Yeah, those statistics are useful, too. It just depends on what you want to measure. You are measuring something different than I was, though. I’m not saying Google’s earnings are going to grow by a factor of 1.6 faster than JPM’s. I’m saying that the expected present value of Google is 1.6 times the value of JPM. Given the time value of money, that doesn’t necessarily translate to an immediate earnings growth forecast with the same ratio. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501/46 "2012-05-23T07:21:01Z")
> [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](#): > > … > > Whenever I log in with a browser that’s not adblocked every ad is for online dating - I guess because I’m listed as single. … Curiously enough I get the dating ads too, and I am listed as in a relationship. So the targeting might not be so good at that. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501/47 "2012-05-23T13:30:07Z")
The Massachusetts SOS has launched an investigation of the IPO…it seems that the underwriters had some sensitive info that they didn’t share. I wonder if any of the officers of FB might face indictments? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501/48 "2012-05-23T13:36:02Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > The Massachusetts SOS has launched an investigation of the IPO..it seems that the underwriters had some sensitive info that they didn’t share. > I wonder if any of the officers of FB might face indictments? Would it be too much trouble to post a link? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501/49 "2012-05-23T17:51:55Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Would it be too much trouble to post a link? Here ya go:[http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/05/23/regulators\_probe\_banks\_role\_in\_facebook\_ipo/?p1=News\_links](http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/05/23/regulators_probe_banks_role_in_facebook_ipo/?p1=News_links) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economics-question-what-are-people-expecting-facebooks-stock-to-do/622501.md?page=2)