{"id":71041,"date":"2014-10-16T11:30:40","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T09:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=71041"},"modified":"2014-10-16T11:26:16","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T09:26:16","slug":"how-much-youre-worth-to-facebook-linkedin-and-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/71041\/how-much-youre-worth-to-facebook-linkedin-and-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"How much you’re worth to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media giants Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all draw revenue from their sizable user bases – but how much is each user worth?<\/p>\n

Looking at the half-year financial data from the social media houses, there’s no doubt that any platform can quite reach the scale of Facebook – in both user base and numbers.<\/p>\n

With over 1.32 billion monthly active users, Mark Zuckerberg’s social media powerhouse drew in US$5.4 billion in revenue in the first six months of 2014.<\/p>\n

Revenues were bolstered by its mobile advertising business, which accelerated in the first three months of the year, helping the company top investors’ financial targets.<\/p>\n

The group’s market capitalisation currently sits just under $190 billion – giving it a per-user value of US$143.51.<\/p>\n

Company value per user<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Company<\/strong><\/td>\nUsers<\/strong><\/td>\nMarket Cap
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n		Per-user Value
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n		ZAR<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Facebook<\/td>\n1,320 million<\/td>\n$189.44 billion<\/td>\n$143.51<\/td>\nR1,589.04<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Twitter<\/td>\n271\u00a0million<\/td>\n$30.75 billion<\/td>\n$113.46<\/td>\nR1,256.31<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LinkedIn<\/td>\n313.4 million<\/td>\n$24.53 billion<\/td>\n$78.27<\/td>\nR866.66<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

The strong results from Facebook have put the company at the top of the pile in both per-user value as well as average revenue per user (ARPU) – a position held by professional social network LinkedIn in 2013.<\/p>\n

Compared to the same period in 2013<\/a>, LinkedIn’s market cap has sunk (from US$28.9 billion in 2013), pushing it below Twitter, which was just about to list on the New York Stock Exchange at the time.<\/p>\n

Investors estimated Twitter’s listing valuation to be around $15 billion (a PUV of US$68.71) – however, the platform debuted at US$25 billion, and now has a market cap of US$30.75 billion.<\/p>\n

Average revenue per user<\/h3>\n

Company value and revenue tell different stories, however.<\/p>\n

Facebook’s 6-month revenue increased by over 65% in the past year (from US$3.27 billion) – pushing its ARPU up to US$4.10.<\/p>\n

Twitter managed to more than double its revenue, increasing it by 122% to US$562.6 million in the period.<\/p>\n

With a user increase to 271 million, this means that Twitter’s ARPU increased to over US$2.00 – though it remains the lowest of the listed social media companies.<\/p>\n

Even though LinkedIn’s market capitalisation dropped in the past 12 months, combined revenue over the first two quarters of the year pushed past US$1 billion, giving the company an ARPU of US$3.21 – up from US$2.89 in 2013.<\/p>\n

Revenue per user<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Company<\/strong><\/td>\nUsers<\/strong><\/td>\nRevenue (first 6 months of 2014)
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n		ARPU<\/strong><\/td>\nZAR<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Facebook<\/td>\n1,320 million<\/td>\n$5,412 million<\/td>\n$4.10<\/td>\nR45.40<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LinkedIn<\/td>\n313.4 million<\/td>\n$1,007 million<\/td>\n$3.21<\/td>\nR35.54<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Twitter<\/td>\n271\u00a0million<\/td>\n$562.6 million<\/td>\n$2.07<\/td>\nR22.92<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

When looking at actual profits, however, there’s a different story entirely.<\/p>\n

Of the three companies, Facebook was the only one to make an actual profit (based on GAAP earnings).<\/p>\n

Facebook’s net income was reported at US$1.4 billion for the period (US$1.9 billion non-GAAP), meaning it made a profit of US$1.08 per user.<\/p>\n

While LinkedIn and Twitter both made non-GAAP profits of US$110.3 million and US$14.78 million respectively, both companies reported GAAP losses.<\/p>\n

GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) reporting includes the explicit costs of doing business, such as depreciation, interest, and taxes, while non-GAAP reporting is adjusted to reflect nonrecurring items.<\/p>\n

Profit (Loss) per user<\/h3>\n
\n\n\n\n\n\n
Company<\/strong><\/td>\nUsers<\/strong><\/td>\nNet profit (GAAP)
\n<\/strong><\/td>\n		ARPU<\/strong><\/td>\nZAR<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Facebook<\/td>\n1,320 million<\/td>\n$1,433 million<\/td>\n$1.08<\/td>\nR11.96<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
LinkedIn<\/td>\n313.4 million<\/td>\n($14.3 million)<\/td>\n($0.04)<\/td>\n(R0.44)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Twitter<\/td>\n271 million<\/td>\n($277 million)<\/td>\n($1.02)<\/td>\n(R11.29)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

More on Social Media<\/h3>\n

SA social media numbers revealed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Mobile ads drive Facebook revenue 72%<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Twitter reports surprise profit and user growth<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

LinkedIn forecast dampens stock sizzle<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Social media giants Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all draw revenue from their sizable user bases – but how much is each user worth?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":47151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9882],"tags":[1484,45,26,1301,69,93],"class_list":["post-71041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internet","tag-arpu","tag-facebook","tag-headline","tag-linkedin","tag-social-media","tag-twitter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71041"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71049,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71041\/revisions\/71049"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}