@gordonbowman

Facebook's IPO Filing: Here Are The Numbers That Stood Out To Me

(image credit: readwriteweb.com)

In the year of Internet IPOs, the big juggernaut of them all, Facebook, finally filed for its IPO this week. The best place for a wide variety of analysis was Techmeme. 

I had some time to go through their S-1 this morning though and here are the numbers that stood out to me:

• 2011 Net Income was $1B on $3.7B in revenues
• 57% of Facebook’s monthly users worldwide use the service daily
• 70% of Facebook’s growth last year came from outside the U.S., Canada, and Europe
• Facebook recorded $4.39 in revenue and $1.18 in profit per user last year
• Zynga accounts for 12% of Facebook's revenue (Related: Zynga's IPO Filing: Analyzing the S-1)
• Pandora is mentioned twice, Twitter twice, Microsoft five times, Google fourteen, and Zynga twenty four. MySpace isn't mentioned at all.
• 3,200 employees as Dec 2011
• Facebook is currently available in more than 70 different languages
• Over $3.9B in cash on hand. And they will raise $5B more.
• 845MM monthly active uniques
• 425MM monthly active uniques on mobile 
• The worldwide online advertising market is projected to increase from $68 billion to $120 billion from 2010 to 2015
• The global mobile advertising market was $1.5 billion in 2010 and is expected to grow at a 64% compound annual rate to $17.6 billion in 2015

I've reviewed the IPO filings from all of the big Internet companies over the past year (see: LinkedIn, Zynga, Groupon, Yelp, Millenial Media) and Facebook is unsurprisingly the most impressive of the bunch. 

As somone who lives in the advertising world, I have seen firsthand the growth in Facebook advertising over the past few years. What once accounted for a small part of a client's ad buy is now a must-have along with search. From a marketer's perspective, you just can't beat the reach, targeting and cost efficiency that Facebook provides. 

Facebook is a true networks effects business. The market opportunity is enormous. And they have executed fabulously. For these reasons, I agree with Bill Gurley that Facebook clearly belongs in the highly coveted 10x revenue club. 

Also: Why I'm Buying LinkedIn

What I'm looking forward to in tech this year

• The digital living room. The connected and smart TVs were all the buzz at CES. From Samsung to Microsoft to Google to Roku and others. Yet I think hanging over the head of every announcement was Apple's long rumored TV. The rumors of an Apple TV have been in overdrive ever since Steve Jobs said in an interview that he had "finally cracked it". Did he? Is Apple going to "pull an iPhone" on the cable industry?

• The mobile wallet. The idea that we might be able to use our mobile phones to pay for things offline makes sense. Imagine for a second using your phone to pay for things in stores, coffee shops, taxis, BART, etc. Merging the phone and wallet into one thing seems like a no-brainer. And it’s been happening in places like Japan for years. Will we in the U.S. finally be able to? It's going to take a leader to sort through a lot of mess. To make it happen involves a lot of moving pieces from the handset makers to wireless carriers to banks and credit card companies and finally the retail merchants themselves. Can Google do it with Google Wallet? Will Square try something to push the envelope? 

• The connected car.  Knowing the glacial pace of automotive development, I have been surprised by how quickly automakers have been embracing new technologies in recent years. The dream of a connected car is getting closer to a reality. The announcements out of this year's CES were many: Ford with updates to their Sync Applink, Toytota with Entune, and new releases from Kia, Hyundai and GM. Virtually every car maker is coming on board with new, connected systems after hearing the feedback and demand from consumers. But can the automakers bring the connected car to the masses and not just the high-end, luxury drivers? And can they do so in a simple, safe and easy-to-use way?

• Microsoft & Mobile. Microsoft has been astonishingly late to the mobile party with Windows Phone. Laughably late really. Still dominant in PCs, Microsoft is basically nonexistent in mobile smartphones and tablets ceding the crown to Apple and Google. However, Windows Phone has gotten some rave reviews recently. And through their partnership with Nokia, Microsoft would seem to have the distribution part. The flagship Windows Phone unveiled at CES, the Nokia Lumia 900, seems especially impressive. But does Windows Phone have what it takes to last? Can Microsoft woo app developers? Will it be a Zune (bust) or an XBOX 360 (hit) story for them?

Undoubtedly, these are are all wide open. There are certainly some big ones that I've missed. I mean who would have thought that Google would try to buy Motorola last year?

Some of these may take years to play out. As Bill Gates famously said, 

We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten.

Still, there should be significant progress for each of these this year. And it should make for a very exciting year. 

Also: How Square was Almost Named Squirrel

Millenial Media's IPO Filing: 5 big takeaways

I’ve gone through much of Millenial's IPO filing. Here are some key points:

1. Revenue is growing rapidly and its loss is shrinking, but Millenial is not yet profitable.  The company is now doing about $100M of annual revenue, generating $70M in revenue in the first nine months of 2011, from just $6.2M in 2008. While not yet profitable, their net loss improved from $5.4M to $417,000 during the same period.  
2. Millenial is the #2 player in the huge mobile advertising market and its growth is taking away from Apple. The mobile advertising market is forecasted to double this year to $3.3 billion and be a $20.6 billion market by 2015, according to Gartner. And while Google/AdMob is the leader in the market, with nearly a quarter of the market share, Millenial ranks No. 2, with nearly 17% of share. Millenial's growth is also coming at the expense of Apple/iAds, who comes in at No. 3 with 15%. 
3. The mobile app market is just exploding. Gartner forecasts that the total number of downloads from mobile application stores worldwide will increase from 17.7 billion in 2011 to 108.8 billion in 2015. That's a compound annual growth rate of 57%.
4. Millenial is BIG and growing pretty fast. In December 2011, Millennial reached 200 million unique users. They also processed a whopping 40 billion ad impressionsin December too. In terms of apps, more than 28,000 have Millennial integrated across more than 7,000 different mobile device types and models. 
5. The executives at Millennial are all in their late 30's and 40's. I point this out only to highlight that much of Millennial's success so far is because of seasoned executives, not fresh-faced hackers out of college that we so love to glamorize here in Silicon Valley. Speaking of which, chalk up another big win for non Silicon Valley or New York startups -- Millenial is based in Baltimore. 

Bottom Line: Millennial is growing fast and going after an enormous market opportunity. If they can continue executing well, they will be an important, independent player for years to come.

Also: Zynga's IPO Filing: Analyzing the S-1

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