Thoughts on Facebook, Zuckerberg, and the potential of brand advertising.
My problem with this "
should Zuckerberg be CEO" story (beyond the fact I think he should) is that there's only one real reason given and it doesn't even belong to the author, but instead to
Reuters blogger John Abell: "
Facebook needs its spiritual leader and chief innovator in a hoodie. But it doesn’t need him as CEO, placating investors in a collared shirt." Do we really believe Facebook's stock is sliding because Zuckerberg is spending too much time worrying about investors?
For what it's worth (and it's probably not worth much), my feeling on Facebook is that it's still early and that a) they're not yet where they need to be with their business (let's remember the company is only around 10 years old) and b) the market is so caught up with Google and "intent" that they're still not seeing the bigger opportunity with brand advertising (I
wrote a bunch about this right around the IPO). Facebook is still a gamble, but even they'd admit that. They believe (and need to convince the market) that they have the best years ahead of them and that they plan to fully realize the giant (and unprecedented) opportunity staring them in the face.