That whole hearing was absolute garbage. The entire purpose was to make people a feel as if the govt is doing something. "Look at us! We are questioning Mark Zuckerberg!"
That Zuckerberg makes his money off stealing data and info from people who sign up for Facebook. Latest now is people being tracked even they are not Facebook members.
A couple of my takeaways from the Senate hearings. 1) We all have our reasons for hating Zuckerberg. But he did well as a speaker (albeit in a position of defending a business that may be pretty slimy). I know there were rumors that he wanted to be a politician before; I wonder how he feels about those aspirations now that he saw how they waste their time and how stupid they collectively are, lol. 2) Well, at least Facebook owns WhatsApp, right? If people got a problem with other parties eavesdropping on their info, Facebook has got just the solution for you! It's like Facebook got both sides covered. The side where only the number of users matter, and you don't know what exactly people are doing therefore you're just blasting out an ad to a vast audience and hoping it hits the right users (WhatsApp). And the other side where you can tell advertisers exactly what people are doing, and have the software to efficiently target ads (Facebook).
I am wondering how far FB will go after Cambridge Analytica issue. Advertising revenue is the main source for FB. Even Mark Zuckerberg said that he did not see any significant impact on it, no one knows about it in the future. Ad prices are likely to surge because people spend less time on Facebook than before, leading to a reduction in ad impressions. The number of users in the US and Canada has declined in the previous quarter.
Facebook is also applying artificial intelligence and virtual and augmented reality technologies to various products, which may increase Facebook user engagement even further, helping to further generate attractive revenue growth from advertisers in the future.
Consider this a gift, I wait months for these types of plays.. Loaded with calls most are a few months out, time to sit back and watch the garden grow..
Did very well overall, still holding some otm calls a few months out. Missed the bottom "as usual" but held on.
FB has seen price troubles recently, but I like it right now. Been looking at relative charts of FB and TWTR. First of all, FB by itself has been in a downchannel. But there aren't as many sellers down here as there was in April. Doesn't look like they can push it lower right here. FB has headline risk, countries want them to testify about their data collection, and Trump wants an investigation (also affects GOOGL etc.). But one thing, I think FB will start outperforming TWTR right now. Chart comparing FB to TWTR, this is the bottom for FB in relation to TWTR -- that's my read of the charts. FB has a P/E of 20, revenue growth rate of 30%, with 84% gross margin, 25% ROE, and 0 debt. One negative thing about those numbers is they keep warning about increased costs. One positive slant to those numbers is it finally seems like Whatsapp is close to being monetized, but it's still not right now. Which is why FB is at this place right now. Throwing in the FB/SPY relative strength too.
Facebook (FB) Unfriends Privacy Dec 19, 2018 Facebook (FB) is down over 6% today after headlines last night that the company had exposed users’ information to other companies, and while the stock isn’t at new lows it’s still nearly 40% from record highs posted as recent as July 25th. There are two ways to think about the catastrophe that the company has been for investors over the last five and a half months: declines in market cap in dollar terms and declines in percentage terms. In dollar terms, the losses are staggering. The company’s market cap has fallen from a peak of $629bn in July to $394bn today. That drawdown makes prior retreats in the company’s value look like nothing. In percentage terms, things have actually been worse though. Following its IPO, Facebook retreated more than 50% from its high water mark and in both 2014 and 2016, the stock saw drawdowns of over 20%. Facebook is currently trading $7 (~5%) above its November low of $126.85, so as the stock faces pressure from its latest round of legal woes, that is the line in the sand for the stock going forward.
Facebook crypto-currency, GlobalCoin, planned for 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48383460 It is planning to set up a digital payments system in about a dozen countries by the first quarter of 2020. The social media giant wants to start testing by the end of this year. Facebook is expected to outline plans in more detail this summer, and has already spoken to Bank of England governor Mark Carney. Founder Mark Zuckerberg met Mr Carney last month to discuss the opportunities and risks involved in launching a crypto-currency. Facebook has also sought advice on operational and regulatory issues from officials at the US Treasury. The firm is also in talks with money transfer firms including Western Union as it looks for cheaper and faster ways for people without a bank account to send and receive money. Kind of a bold move, seeing as Whatsapp's "end-to-end encryption" was recently hacked. Maybe SQ and TWTR, both run by Jack Dorsey, will combine in the face of this challenge....we can dream.
