Facebook. Late last year, we published a list of the top 10 IPO candidates of 2010.
Leading that list was Facebook, which has grown to 400 million users and is finally starting to turn on the revenue pumps as it works toward its inevitable IPO. But this evening, the Wall Street Journal published an article penned by Jessica Vascellaro that may dash the hopes of anyone who thinks that will happen in the immediate future. The lengthy piece, which is well worth reading in its entirety, touches on quite a few issues related to Facebook’s history and its future, and largely revolves around CEO Mark Zuckerberg — who doesn’t sound all that keen to take his company public. While the article covers a lot of familiar territory about Facebook’s past, there’s plenty of new information too. With regard to Facebook’s IPO, the article discusses Zuckerberg’s penchant for “delayed gratification”, which he says he has a special capacity for.
There are also a handful of interesting anecdotes about Zuckerberg. Zynga. Social games maker Zynga's revenues are much bigger than what everyone, including us, has been reporting, a Wall Street source tells us.
(He's asked to remain anonymous because this kind of gossiping could get him fired.) While the most aggressive reports we've seen so far peg Zynga's revenue around $150 million, our banker says he understands the number is closer to $250 million, with huge 60% EBITDA margins. Bonus: See Mark Pincus's presentation from the Web 2.0 Summit → We asked Zynga founder Mark Pincus about these numbers and a Zynga spokesperson told us, "We aren't giving out any numbers beyond what we have publicly stated. " So, if it's true that Zynga is indeed pulling in so much cash, where does all that money come from? The easiest way to understand it is to look at Zynga's latest huge hit, FarmVille, which has 20 million daily active users since launching over the summer.
The way FarmVille works is, players get a plot of virtual land and some virtual seeds to cultivate it. CHART OF THE DAY: Farmville-Maker Zynga's Revenues Reach $600 Mi. Twitter. Yelp. LinkedIn. Demand media. Habbo. Etsy.