Facebook close to surpassing Google in visits

On Wednesday, Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg introduced a new application called Facebook Places that allows users to document places that they have been.  Cool.  It should be a popular feature on the world's most popular social media site.

Pardon, not just social media.  Facebook is poised to becoming the most popular place on the world wide web, period.

For the month of July, Google had 3.161 billion visits.  Check this, Facebook had an astonishing 3.152 billion visits.  eMarketer estimates that the popular social networking site will rake in over $1.3 billion in revenue for 2010, almost double the $665 million it brought in last year.

The site's staggering growth is fueling speculations that Facebook will go public by way of an IPO sometime in 2012.  That's speculation, but the site has institutional investors.  One thing we know about investors, the final objective is harvest.

Bloomberg recently valued Facebook at $24.9 billion, using data from two private exchanges where investors can place positions in venture-backed companies.

The site has become a global phenomenon, and earlier this year, it surpassed the 500 million user mark.  A big chunk of the world's population uses the site as a place to connect.

There are also expectations of $1.8 billion in revenue for 2011, based on estimates of between 600 to 700 million users.

Facebook is not just a popular online site.  It's staggering growth makes it a bona fide powerhouse.  An interesting question is, will Mark Zuckerberg keep user's experience as a friendly and homely one?

Or will pressures to monetize this most valuable of web properties commercialize the site to such an extent, that friendlier, homelier competitors can snatch the initiative?

Facebook Places boosts Foursquare awareness and users

Image via CrunchBase

Long-rumoured as a 'Foursquare-killer', Facebook Places, a geolocation tool for the already wildly successful social networking site, has reported spurred growth in the location market leader, Foursquare.
According to chief executive Dennis Crowley, since the launch of Places, Foursquare saw its "biggest day ever in terms of new signups."
Foursquare is currently the most successful location-based social tool in terms of user numbers and revenues. The service allows users to 'check in' to establishments - including bars and restaurants or local attractions - and reap rewards if offered by the particular business.
Mimicking one of Foursquare's key features, Facebook Places also allows users to check in upon arrival at their favourite hang-out spots. However, that's where the similarities seem to end for the two competing applications.
Both available as mobile handset applications, which make use of a phone's built-in GPS chip, Places does not currently have a rewards system in place with local businesses. With Foursquare, top visitors can become 'mayors' of select locations, where often the business in question will reward them with free or discount goods.
At present, the Big Blue F's new venture only functions as a tool to let other friends within a social network know where to find you, and this could prompt users to investigate Foursquare, which features more comprehensive technologies.
In addition, whereas Places has only infiltrated specific markets of the United States, as Facebook tries to configure how much capacity will be taken up by user information related to the service, Foursquare is available in locations worldwide.
However, as the Places feature matures, the webbing world could be faced with yet another David v Goliath battle, as the half-billion users of Facebook, or even its 150 million mobile users, dwarf the circa 3 million subscribers to the Foursquare service.

20 August 2010 | Author: J. Morton Search Copywriter