> So what is that magical ingredient, that secret sauce, that “genius” trade sec...

jasode · on July 23, 2019

>It has always been a profitable company[0].

No, Facebook was founded in 2004 and it took 5 years to make its first profits in 2009: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2009/09/faceboo...

Your cited chart only begins at 2009 instead of 2004.

Also, if we count Accel Partners $12.7 million in 2005 as the "Series A" investment, Facebook was not yet profitable at that point. (https://fortune.com/2011/01/11/timeline-where-facebook-got-i...)

5trokerac3 · on July 23, 2019

> According to the S-1, Facebook made a modest $382,000 in revenue 2004, $9 million in revenue in 2005, $48 million in revenue in 2006 and $153 million in revenue in 2007, with no reporting of net loss.[0]

Seems like we're both wrong. FB was profitable before '09, but it did have a couple years of loss.

[0] https://techcrunch.com/2012/02/01/facebook-ipo-facebook-ipo-...

jasode · on July 23, 2019

No sure where the journalist (Alexia Tsotsis) got the data to write: "$382,000 in revenue 2004, $9 million in revenue in 2005, $48 million in revenue in 2006 and $153 million in revenue in 2007, with no reporting of net loss."

Those figures are not anywhere in the actual S-1: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512...

In fact, page 40 of the S-1 clearly shows a 2007 loss of -$138 million which contradicts what the Techcrunch author wrote.