Nov 03 2008

Facebook Grows (and Costs Soar)

Category: BusinessTeknovis @ 20:11

ComScore released a press release today covering the UK Web Rankings for September 2008. Several news sites are commenting on the fact that Facebook has overtaken the BBC to occupy the fifth spot. Indeed, this was the most significant change in the list. I guess that this is not surprising, given the universal appeal that Facebook currently has!

I find this especially interesting, because I read an article on TechCrunch over the weekend claiming that Facebook may be trying to raise more capital in order to cover their soaring costs. To put this in context, Facebook have raised almost $500 million in 2007 and 2008 already. So what are they doing with all of this cash? Some of the more interesting costs cited are:

  • $2 million per week for additional storage
  • $1 million per month on electricity
  • $500,000 per month on bandwidth
  • $10 million per month on payroll

So where are Facebook trying to raise this extra capital from in this time of economic cautiousness? Dubai!

It will be very interesting to see if they succeed in raising more capital, and at what price! I am certainly not dying to get a piece of that action!

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