Facebook IPO: What you need to be careful about?

With just over 10 odd days remaining for the Facebook IPO to open, there has been lots of news around the public offering like what would be the valuation, how advantageous would it be to invest in here, the company acquiring Instagram, employers asking for FB password of prospective employees, youngsters deactivating FB accounts after realizing that they are losing touch with “real life” etc. Each of these news hold tremendous influence on lots of things related to the IPO. However, no matter how interesting these might have been for reading, in my opinion, the most important thing that a prospective investor needs to learn about are the risk factors that Facebook itself has outlined in the IPO prospectus.

1) Despite its growth in recent years, the number of Internet users in the world is finite. The number of active monthly users on the social networking site is 845 million monthly, but FB warns that this growth rate will slide "as the size of our active user base increases, and as we achieve higher market penetration rates."

If Facebook can't retain users and their attention, then advertising could also peter out. Yes, remember Orkut? How hooked on you used to be? Now, do you even check your Orkut account?

2) Facebook is already restricted in China, Iran, North Korea and Syria. Other countries can follow suit; you never know. Remember, Kapil Sibal? No. Then, West Bengal Government involving the CID to investigate posting of allegedly controversial material against the Chief Minister on Facebook! Logic and rationality can vacate any “market” without any prior notice.  Hence, the company warns that in such a scenario their competitors can successfully penetrate those geographic markets that they cannot access.

3) Facebook is subject to laws governing a litany of issues including privacy, intellectual property, data protection and these laws are always evolving. Any slight change in these laws can hurt Facebook's business.

4) Zynga, the online gaming company behind the popular games on FB like Farmville, Cityville, etc, accounted for 12 percent of Facebook's revenue in 2011. It also generated considerable Web traffic for the social network. Facebook’s earning would take a hit if Zynga’s games became less popular, or if Zynga launches games on competing platforms. In fact, Zynga has launched its own platform earlier this year to decrease its dependence on Facebook.

5)  Facebook has become an integral part of our life and people believe in instant sharing of information than waiting to log in to our accounts after they have access to computers. Hence, users are increasingly opting to log onto Facebook through mobile phones, and many of these devices run Google's Android and Apple's iOS. These are the operating systems controlled by two of Facebook's competitors. So, any "changes in such systems that degrade our products' functionality or give preferential treatment to competitive products could adversely affect Facebook usage on mobile devices," Facebook warns.

6)  Before the IPO, CEO Mark Zuckerberg's shares give him 57 percent of the voting power. Even after the IPO, his stake is not likely to go down significantly because of Facebook's ownership structure. The company's success rests largely with Zuckerberg, but so much control in the hands of one man may be cause for concern to investors.

7)  As an Internet company, Facebook expects to be involved in "expensive and time consuming" patent lawsuits, often with "non-practicing entities" which sue Facebook to extract a settlement. "We presently are involved in many such lawsuits, and as we face increasing competition and gain an increasingly high profile, including in connection with our initial public offering, we expect the number of patent and other intellectual property claims against us to grow," Facebook says.

Investing in FB is not going to be any different from investing in any other company. You just need to keep a tab on what’s trending on the social networking front and what the dot.com (as well the tech) world is abuzz with.  

Behavior and Friendships at Workplace

I remember this quite well. At one of the organizations where I have worked, a colleague (now a friend) had shared the following gyaan or wisdom with this new entrant into the professional sphere:

Mark my words - bigger the organization, more complex and convoluted would be the behavior, culture and relations.

And then on, I have only been moving to bigger organizations and witnessing this gyaan first hand. But this post is not about cribbing about the suffocation I (and what you might relate to) have to deal with. Its about the window that brings (or rather say, used to bring) a breathe of fresh air to end the suffocation.

This post is dedicated to my soon to become ex-colleague cum friend, whom I fondly call MJ. We had joined the organization with a gap of 7 days, but we started interacting in real terms only after 4-5 months. Our interactions improved, so did our friendship, once we realized our shared interests and idiosyncrasies.

Though MJ is a year younger than me (I miss those days when I used to be the youngest in a team), but her maturity to understand certain situations and appropriately handling them impressed me. The complexities, as mentioned in the gyaan part, in our organization did not allow us to behave as buddies and her maturity helped us overcoming those obstacles (This is because I am the rebellious types and my response to such circumstances is 'f*** you', which can land us in trouble :P).

I will miss MJ for our impromptu g-talk, b-talk ('b' does not stand only for boy :P), life-talk...and yes, who would accommodate me (third person) in the best two-seater seat in a plane so that I too can see the rising sun - the sun rising from the land we call East (Thailand) while we are on board. I don't know if I will ever witness that ever in my life. Thanks MJ.

I don't believe in bidding farewell to people whom I know I will cross path with very often. So no formalities...except that I wish for the best for you. And now that the colleague tag is going to be dropped, all these days in this place looks worthy to have gained a friend like you, MJ.

Staff Hai and the Blue Line Buses

…which loosely translates as “I am part of the staff”. This is a common answer given by students in New Delhi (I am sure in other parts of the country as well) when asked for fares while traveling in blueline bus or shared auto rickshaw. This phrase holds the same stature amongst students as our fundamental right to freedom of speech. Any violation of this right, i.e. extracting money in the name of fare from a student who has already claimed to be a staff of some privileged educational institution which the bus or auto rickshaw has to pass by, might lead to epic battles between the staff of the bus (operator) and rightful staff of the educational institution – students.

(For guys, the ‘staff hai’ also works at all the local, roadside food stalls for free stuffs.)

During our college life, (usually) our canteen and movie budgets were funded by the savings made from the bus fares, especially at the end of month (and if you are a guy, then…its life-saver other than mom :) ).

I pity those who have studied in really privileged colleges (no pun intended) where they didn’t have strong student council or union, which can force the public transport of the city to bend rules to take care of the requirements of students. It is for such dedicated representatives that 40-50 per cent voting in the (Delhi) university election is reported and not for free movie tickets. Don’t know what happens to such promise fulfilling, budding politicians after they enter the mainstream. Such candidates should be given direct tickets for the Parliament or state assemblies instead of making them struggle as party worker in the name of getting proper training for the political career. Just like education, this political training only kills the innocent leader who only wants to serve people.

Apologies for digressing :)

This right was most used in now-thing-of-the-past, Blueline buses of Delhi. I happened to have studied in a college which allowed us to proudly avail the staff facility in a Blueline bus. God only knows, how many conductors got sound beating from the college’s barey bhaiyas (tough guys) for harassing students by asking for fares.

With Blueline buses being taken off the Delhi roads, it would be interesting to know what methods the students of the staff hai group of colleges, including mine, now resort to for a free ride. The fare money these days seem dearer given the call centre jobs no longer pay that well as they used to 7-8 years back. (Don’t start calculating my age. I didn’t go to college that long time ago :P)

Moment of Happiness

We all want to be happy... but what exactly is happiness? What is the exact moment of true happiness?

While watching Pursuit of Happyness recently, I started asking these questions. What led to the thought was that the protagonist was describing certain clinching moments from his life as "this part of my life is called..." Eventually, gloomy moments end with the part in his life which he describes as happiness or being happy. (Its an inspiring story...I enjoy watching it.) He enjoys the moment. He walks out of the building with tears of joy still in his eyes...not able to think of what to do next. But that is to the moment of happiness...the movie ends with the protagonist walking with his kid while making future plans to secure, to build more of this moment of happiness.

Then, what was the actual moment of 'happyness' and how long did it last? Can burden of expectations let happiness persist for long? (I wondered.)

Consider this. Announcement is being made that you stood first (or any rank till third) in your class for the academic year. (Remember the moment) You being in a different world - smiling ear to ear. You collect your report card from the principal. And the princi while congratulating you would definitely say that next year it has to be better. There ends your happy moment. You come down and mingle, everyone congratulates you with the rejoinder that try to do better next time (if you stood first, then it has to be better percentage next time, and if second, then strive to become first. So, the moment to rejoice is over or f**ked as expectation starts building.

Life is full of imperfections. The perfect moments are rare and brief. Its these moments, which I feel, are the moment of happiness. The state of true happiness is when you realize that you have achieved what you have expected, desired, striven for. Its that brief moment when you learn that you stood first in class or you have got your dream job or have finally made it to the place you have always wanted to travel to or when finally that BIG QUESTION is asked by your partner. Its that very moment, and a brief time period following it, when you might have been really happy - without thinking about what happened in the past or what would follow. You just cherish the news that you have achieved what you have been striving for. As the moment passes, expectations start building and your brain (automatically) starts working on ways to fulfill them.

At least that is the case with mere mortals. We end up internalizing those expectations as our goals. With great human beings, it might be a different story.

Editor's Block

(This post was the result of straight two years' of editorial experience. It deals with the main reason for not able to post more often. The new name for the blog is, to some extent, influenced by this post as well.)

"Journalism is literature in hurry." That's one of the reasons why I had always considered it as my first step towards becoming a writer. However, circumstances beyond my control had landed me in the seat of an editor, which now prevents me from writing a single page without thinking about the subject and language.

My job requires me to act as the prism through which an author's creativity has to pass through to get the ooolalalas of the audience. In other words, I interrupt the communication between the author and muse so that we can position the product that ensures maximum return for the company. And I must add this that I am quite good at it (that's what my boss says...seldom you hear such things from boss...don't you ;) ).

While I rejoice over this, I also mourn the fact that my editorial experience stands between me and my dream to become a writer. Writing has no longer remained simple working around the idea...or questions pertaining to developing that idea... As soon as the idea dawns, the mind gets divided in two halves. The writer's half wants to see its workings on paper, while the editor's is editing it at the same time. This results in repetitive modifications and deletions happening simultaneously leaving my mind worked up and a sense of failure seeps in. Its very difficult to be working as TS Eliot and Ezra Pound on Wasteland at the same time. (Pound had edited the draft of Eliot's Wasteland.)

Writer's block is a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. In this case, there is no scarcity of idea or communication problem between the muse and the soul invoking her or lack of motivation. Its the intervention of editorial experience that results in zero output or one rambling in ten days.

Ain't She Good??

(These lines are dedicated to Amy Winehouse. Originally written on Aug 4, 2011)

When she was alive,

the quills declared her bad.

Wasting her genius in ways they thought bad.

Now that she is dead,

why is the quill composing a different note?

Reading 'Almost Single'

Recently I finished reading 'Almost Single' by Advaita Kala. And yet again I discovered that it is another book by a young generation Indian author who has been able to show the life of young India through the borrowed bioscope of bollywood.

Honestly, I have never been into the habit of reading of contemporary literature (Rushdie, Naipaul, Amitabh Ghosh, Jhumpa Lahiri, etc. were always ‘must read’). Most of the time I was occupied with reading those books which were on reference list (being a literature student and one of those nerd ones, who liked to read other works of the prescribed author to understand his/her perspective or style better, I was left with no time to read anything else).

But for quite sometime now, I have taken to reading pop-fiction, chick-lit and contemporary fiction written by Indian authors, like Chetan Bhagat, Advaita Kala, Karan Bajaj, etc., and yes I liked reading it.

Yes the jokes are pretty well cracked; drinks are also quite easily available; going to pubs is as easy going to temple; getting laid is as easy as having butter-chicken in Delhi and there are many things, which the protagonists of these books happen to experience, are pretty to easy to have. Reading through these books are as pleasant as watching our hindi movies. (Please don’t get me wrong; I am not demeaning anything)

As it is said of our hindi movies, especially the songs, they are the concrete, palpable expression of our fleeting dreams, a side of our personality which we often try to ignore or suppress. These books are also doing the same. As it has become quite common in bollywood movies to have Christian wedding of people with ‘Sharma’, ‘Verma’ as surnames, school kids going to prom, etc., so is bunking classes, going to pubs (the entry ticket may cost you fortune in real life) and getting laid at early age have become common topics in the modern Indian fiction.

The question that arises in my mind is: is this is a wish fulfillment that we Indian audience are looking for, or is this an experience of few that the majority wants to live, or indeed these incidences have become a reality for many ( hence we are more interested in knowing if I have behaved the same way as others have) and is this what has kept us all of hooked on to these books?