Don’t read this if you’ve been Zuckered
For most facebook addicts in Panama the fate of founder, Mark Zuckerberg probably means little.
But the pricking of the bubble has been predicted by some earlier academic contributors to Newsroom, who have linked it, along with MacDonalds to the dumbing down of societal values. (Check out Mcfb)
A report in The Week, published Friday, June 1, shows how quickly celebrities can move from adulation to derision. It doesn’t mention that the guy who, some fellow Harvard students claim, stole the idea, still has a few pennies in the bank, at least until the lawyers get into the act as he faces multiple law suits for “greed, hype and deception.”
One reader commented: “You mean he’s a realtor?” Not the sort of stuff you want to hear when you are on your honeymoon.
But the greed factor enters into every hyped bubble from the South Seas to the Swedish Match Bubble and Panama’s own ill fated Darien expedition that paved the way for Scotland’s union with England to avoid bankruptcy .
Those so anxious to make a quick buck from the facebook stock listing, should have noticed an earlier report showing that 83% of users never click on facebook ads. Not a good recommendation when ad revenue is what it’s all about for the owners.
The hype also listed 900 million facebook subscribers around the world, but didn’t mention drop outs or those who never access their accounts.
At a hostelry favored by expats, I recently conducted an unscientific survey and asked six of them when they last looked at their facebook account. The closest date was three months earlier and none of them was able to boast about having thousands of “friends” in cyberspace. Their friends were standing next to them.
Said one “Whatever happened to the personal touch, sharing information and photos with those you know, love and respect instead of letting the world know every time you flush the toilet.”
The good news is that Zuckerberg’s wife, a newly minted doctor, will be able to help keep the wolves from the door if facebook and other social networks go into permanent decline and according to some forecasters it will be gone in five years and a lot of people will lose a lot of "friends".
Here’s what The Week had to say.
MARK ZUCKERBERG has been ousted from a list of the world's richest people, after losing $2bn in two weeks thanks to Facebook's disastrous debut on the stock market.
The 28-year-old Harvard drop-out was cut from Bloomberg's Billionaires Index, a list of the world's top 40 earners when his net worth floundered from $16.2bn to $14.7bn thanks to the collapse in the price of Facebook shares since their inauspicious listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange earlier this month.
Before the float Facebook shares were valued at $38 each, but after two weeks had sunk to a low of $28.69 when markets opened today.
It means Zuckerberg, once the youngest person on Bloomberg's rich list, is now $800m shy of last place, which was occupied by the Colombian banker Luis Carlos Sarmiento, who is valued at $15.6bn.
The Facebook IPO has been such a disaster that a new term has been coined on Wall Street, to be 'Zucked', his reputation has gone from "hero to zero" as investors have filed lawsuits against his company and its underwriters amid accusations of "greed, hype and deception".
Indeed, the Zuck is so out of luck that he has lost $15.7 million each hour since Facebook went public.
And it seems that the social networking entrepreneur may be experiencing a few cashflow problems. He is currently on honeymoon with his new wife Priscilla Chan, but was been seen struggling to withdraw cash from an ATM in Rome on Tuesday before slumping away empty handed to try another, according to reports in The Daily Mail.
And if the rumors are to be believed, the billionaire couple skipped out on a tip for a waitress after dinner at kosher restaurant Nonna Betta in Rome.
Perhaps he was saving his pennies in an attempt to claw his way back into the top 40, but his actions have not gone unnoticed on Twitter.
"Zuckerberg Drops Off Billionaires Index as Facebook Falls. No wonder he can't afford to tip!" tweeted one person. ·
