Those Millions On Facebook? Some May Not Actually Visit (NYT / DealBook)

On the first page of Facebook’s prospectus for its sale of stock to the public, it pegs the number of its “monthly active users” at a whopping 845 million people. The social networking site arrives at an even more astounding number when it comes to “daily active users”: 483 million people. Those are some huge numbers. If it is hard to believe that so many people are clicking on facebook.com every day, that’s because, well, they aren’t, exactly. Those eye-popping numbers should have an asterisk next to them. TechCrunch: There’s a bigger point to Sorkin’s article, which he sort of addresses, which second-guesses the premise. Likes are actually quite valuable in and of themselves, because Facebook can use them to target ads, and provide the data to developers so they can build products that use Facebook to customize user experiences. Likes and other actions also generate content in the news feed that in turn makes the site more engaging. It’s hard to know exactly how valuable all that targeting and engagement activity is. AllFacebook: Rather than arguing that Facebook is going to find it hard to succeed in an increasingly mobile-centric world, the real argument should be that Facebook is on the verge of unlocking the greatest opportunity facing the company.