Monetizing Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Groupon and VK

This weekend, namely on October 8, 2011, I spoke at the Lviv iCamp 2011 conference (by the way, many thanks to the organizers, a very high-quality event that I attend for the second year in a row) with two reports, the first one was called “The cost of creating the site and its services ”, the second“ Monetization of social networks ”. I will write about the structure of the cost of creating a site in a separate post, but here are some of the most interesting data on the monetization of social networks, in particular Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Groupon and VK, I’ll post in this post.



The information is taken from 4 parts of my large research “All about social networks”:



The first part of the report (rus): “Everything about social networks. Impact on a person [1/4] " ;

First part of the report (eng): “Everything About Social Networks. Impact on a Person [1/4] ” ;

The second part of the report (rus): “Everything about social networks. Prospects of development [2/4] " ;

The third part of the report: “Everything about social networks. Technologies [3/4] ”;

The fourth part of the report: “Everything about social networks. Monetization [4/4] ".

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The full text of the study with formulas and calculations will be available in 2-3 weeks at this address . Those interested can download the presentation of my report entirely (* .ppt, 1 mb).



Before the calculations, one small explanation: the “payback” indicator was calculated as the ratio of last year's net profit to the company's current value and does not take into account a series of data, such as profit growth, inflation, etc. It is shown solely for the purpose of comparing different projects. All other indicators are calculated accurately.

Facebook monetization

Profitability: $ 1.86 billion for 2010, net profit of $ 550 million. The network is profitable.

Revenue per user: $ 2.65 per year.

Company value: $ 75.3 billion

User cost: $ 107.5.

PR ratio: 40.48 annual turns.

Payback: 136.9 years.

Three main ways to monetize:

1. Direct advertising (50% +)

2. Gaming applications

3. Virtual Gifts

Revenue growth in 2010: 2.65 times.

LinkedIn Monetization

Profitability: $ 243 million for 2010, net profit of $ 15.4 million. The network is profitable.

Revenue per user: $ 2.43 per year.

Company value: $ 9 billion, held an IPO.

User cost: $ 90.

PR ratio: 37 annual turns.

Payback: 584 years.

Three main ways to monetize:

1. Job advertisements (41%)

2. Direct advertising (32%)

3. Premium accounts (27%)

Revenue growth in 2010: more than 2 times.

Twitter monetization

Profitability: $ 45 million for 2010. The network is unprofitable.

Revenue per user: $ 0.45 per year.

Company value: $ 15.8 billion

User cost: $ 161.22.

PR ratio: 351.11 per annum.

Payback: not known

Three main ways to monetize:

1. Selling information

Revenue growth in 2010: 1.8 times.

Monetization Groupon

Profitability: $ 312.9 million for 2010. The network is unprofitable.

Revenue per user: 35.55 per year.

Company value: $ 9 billion

The cost of the user: $ 1022.22.

PR ratio: 28.76 annual turns.

Payback: not known

Three main ways to monetize:

1. Direct sales

Income growth for 2010: not known

Monetization VK

Profitability: $ 93.8 million for 2010, net profit of $ 16.2 million

Revenue per user: $ 2.34 per year.

Company value: $ 1.84 billion

User cost: $ 46.

PR ratio: 19 annual turns.

Payback period: 113 years.

Three main ways to monetize:

1. Targeted advertising (60%)

2. Gaming applications (30%)

3. Paid services (10%)

Revenue growth in 2010: less than 2 times.



All numbers need good analytics, in particular, many consider Groupon to be a bubble or Twitter not capable of reaching a return on investment. All this is not entirely true, but this is already in the full version of the study. Those who want to get it please in a personal.



Author:

Nikita Semenov ( Facebook , VK , LinkedIn )

CEO

SECL GROUP / Internet Sales Technologies