The Facebook IPO earlier this month left us a bit disappointed. There were financial and ethical let-downs. But the over-arching surprise is that people were misled in advance about the value of the company. Yes, it has assembled one of the world's largest potential marketplaces, but beyond advertising, the social network still has no killer method for monetizing its audience in a way that it will tolerate.
So we tip our hats to MBA Online for coming up with a novel way to look at the IPO outcome for Mark Zuckerberg, creator and CEO of what is currently the most widely used social networking service in the world.
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)
Journalist Robin Lloyd, a contributing editor at Scientific American, publishes the "Smart, Useful, Science Stuff about COVID-19" newsletter. She is an adjunct professor at New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program.
