Asked by ifiwalkforever
I don’t think we can safely say that we reached the low for the year. Jobs numbers aren’t looking good and Europe has some important things to hash out before we can say we’re on our way back up. My best advice is only put in what you’re willing to lose. Treat anything with the stock market like a night at the casino.
Facebook IPOhhhhshit
The Facebook IPO last week marks a huge milestone for the company, the tech sector and web 2.0. As a tech lover I am often asked by my friends as more and more tech companies fill the bubble “Did you buy Xynga? LinkedIn? Facebook?” the answer has always been no because I can see past the hype. I want to use this blog post to explain why I haven’t bought into the tech bubble yet despite my love for all these companies going public (especially facebook) and then talk about where Facebook should go from here.
Technology is the cool thing and the internet is the fuel that technology runs on. Anything big that catches on the internet is instantly hot and big news. Big news generates a lot of hype, a lot of hype generates over valuation and incredibly high expectations. When those expectations aren’t met you will see a decline and an overwhelming response of disappointment. Facebook is a big example of what many other internet companies who went public have seen. Just because a company has a really neat idea, large bases of users or corner a particular market segment doesn’t mean that they have good ideas to make themselves a good public company (you know, that always important basic account equation assets-liabilities=stockholders equity). If any other idea or company that wasn’t on the internet went public without a real solid and reliable source of revenue you would NEVER hear a large level of hype around them, but since it’s tech and cool, internet companies are not the normal case.
In the specific case of Facebook I made my decision not to even think about buying earlier in the week when a poll showed that a large segment of American’s don’t trust Facebook and GM announced they were pulling all Facebook advertisements because it’s not effective. The vast majority of Facebook revenue is from advertisement sales. If people don’t trust a company they won’t click on (the revenue generation part of the formula) the ads and the advertisers will pull their advertisements (see GM example). This is a serious issue that Facebook will have to tackle before they even address the “bells and whistles” features that users want and go elsewhere to receive.
Facebook has a number of other issues that they have to work on. A growing concern is that an increasing number of users are using mobile applications or mobile web browsers to use Facebook. Currently I can access Facebook a number of different ways using my Windows Phone or my Kindle Fire without seeing a single advertisement. If Facebook wants to grow and keep up with future trends they will need to develop a serious mobile strategy that includes revenue generation.
Another ever present issue is the constantly present battle between Facebook and your expectations of privacy. Facebook has a huge amount of information about you (all information that you voluntarily gave, remember) and it’s all gold to advertisers. Now that Facebook has stockholders and earnings expectations to meet. Will your data be safe?
Ultimately I think Facebook will do just fine. They may have been overhyped at the IPO stage but they are already doing things that position them very well in the future. They have a whole ecosystem surrounding the company, their network is huge and most importantly the company is incredibly fast to adapt. Everyone should take one lesson from the Facebook IPO. No matter what you think of a product or how much hype it gets in the media, you should always do your own independent research.
Reblogged from fuckyeahjonhuntsman2012
This Badass Jon Huntsman image needs to resurface right about about…NOW!
Reblogged from jonhuntsmanjr
(via jonhuntsmanjr)
Reblogged from f-ckyeahbillgates
The Geek Gods. In Binary Code. #Apple #Windows #SteveJobs #BillGates #PhotoOfTheDay (Taken with instagram)
Reblogged from northcarolinastatemsp
Living on a college campus, I am constantly being exposed to new technologies, whether it is through friends or through North Carolina State University itself. As an avid and devoted fan of all things Microsoft, I’ve never let the talk about Microsoft’s competition get to me. I am almost 20 years old and for 10 of those 20 years, for literally half of my life, I have felt and believed in my heart and core that Microsoft is and always will be the best. A friend (questionable title) recently got into the argument with me that Apple is the most valuable company in the world. Obviously, I couldn’t believe this and a part of me still doesn’t. I pulled up Bing and searched, “world’s most valuable company.” I nearly threw up when I saw Apple scattered across my screen. My friend found this entertaining to “prove” me wrong. That is why I am dedicating this post to my ex-friend, because little does he know, I’m actually not wrong.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is faced with a difficult reality that is echoed across the nation. A combination of rising costs (such as those from medical care for the elderly and unions) and revenues not meeting expectations fuel this reality. The difference between the state having a shortfall of funds and the federal government having a shortfall is that the state constitution requires the state legislature to pass a balanced budget. This is a great preventative measure that will hopefully prevent the Commonwealth from ever reaching the debt crisis that we see in Washington.
Faced with the reality of the situation the leadership in Harrisburg simply has to make cuts somewhere. Unfortunately Governor Corbett has suggested a cut of 30% to the Temple University appropriation amounting to almost $42 million. I personally feel it would be irresponsible to not expect a cut at all. I feel that in this time everyone needs to share the sacrifice of our economic situation. Having said that, the current budget proposal has several sacred cows that are not being touched and programs that could be re-tooled to better serve people without being taken advantage of and wasting tax money.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania needs to look at reforming their welfare programs (5th highest pubic assistants spending in the country) to make sure that recipients of aid are actually those who are in need. It’s also time that we take a serious look at state medical programs as it takes up a 31% (2nd highest in the country) chunk of our budget. This is understandably a difficult thing to touch considering the political implications of possibly cutting funding to the elderly in one of the oldest states in the country but we must do it for our future.
We can all get involved in a number of ways through TSG, TALON and personal efforts but voting is the only foolproof method to have your voice heard. As the Vice President of the Temple College Republicans I look forward to working with the rest of our board to bring in great speakers this election year to help you make sound choices this coming election. While it is easy to look at the party next to the figure head of our state government and get angry at an entire party it is important to note that in the past education has been a bipartisan issue. This is a tough situation for Republicans and Democrats alike and we just need to be heard so they know making THIS funding decision is not a good one for them.
