Facebook Inc. turns ten today, marking the tenth year since the founder of the company Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow students created a social network, which turned out to grow to more than a billion users.
In 2013 Facebook shifted Yahoo! from its comfortable position and became the U.S. second largest digital advertising platform after Google. According to data compiled from E-Marketer, Facebook also was second to Google in the worldwide mobile advertising market. A research by Pew has shown that the number of adults that become engaged on the social network in the U.S. increases on a daily basis. According to Pew, about 64% of adult Facebook users visit the website every day, which is more than the 51% posted in 2010.
In April 2012, Facebook announced the purchase of Instagram in a deal, which was estimated to 1 billion dollars. This deal is considered to be the largest acquisition of the company to date. In addition, mobile advertising beats desktop advertising revenue for the first time. Facebook also proved itself to be capable to make money on mobile devices, and the profit turned out to be even bigger than the one on desktop. The companys revenue increased by 76% and reached 7.9 billion dollars in 2013, and its earnings rose by 82%. As reported by the Financial Times, its market capitalisation got extra 16 billion dollars in after hours trading.
Facebook was valued to more than 100 billion dollars in its initial public offering, but just a few months later it had fallen to half of that value. This shook the investor confidence not only in the company but also in the wider market for technology industry listings. The company was also accused several times of not respecting its users right to privacy, and a few cases were filed.
The founder of the company Mark Zuckerberg accused the US government of creating a massive PR problem for the social network. The website was listed as one of the U.S. companies that provide the National Security Agency with access to information about users.
In 2009, Facebook was banned in China as part of the broader censorship push of the countrys government. In October 2013, David Ebersman, Chief Financial Officer of Facebook, announced that the number of young teens on the social network was decreasing.
Facebook Inc. fell by 1.74% on Monday to settle at $61.48 but its one-year change is up 106.79%. The 42 analysts offering 12-month price targets for CNNMoney have a median target of $70.00, with a high estimate of $82.00 and a low estimate of $24.90. The median estimate represents a 13.86% increase from the latest closing price.
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