Apparently, Linkedin shares fell…40% OVERNIGHT!
The lesson here, is that the same people and entities that hyped these companies to billion dollar valuations without monetization strategies, are the same ones tanking the companies trying to figure out their monetization strategies. They pull their money because the estimates and expectations weren’t met. This throttles innovation because it changes the goal post. Instead of thinking about the users and making a better experience, they think about the investors.
And to me, I think that’s a load of horseshit!
Always stay out of the comments section
Furthermore, if you look at the comments on the linked article above, you’ll notice that nothing seems to take precedence above the almighty dollar, especially in the short term. The comments reek of shortsightedness and unbridled greed.
Some say Linkedin is nothing more than a CV. I can say with certainty that those people haven’t tried to find a job recently, nor have they tried to hire for one recently, nor have they looked at the available marketing opportunities to get in front of a target audience, nor have they tried to build a community to generate loyalty, inside sales and more.
Is it that because they don’t understand it, they suggest that the platform has no value?”
I find myself wondering: “Do these people actually think social media is going to disappear? Do they think the genie will go back in the bottle?”
Many of the comments are people who are not just “non-believers” in social media, they are also they people who fail to see any of the opportunities these platforms present. That is to say, it is THEIR own short sightedness that contributes to the decline of their own investments.
I digress, let me get back to the point
Wall Street ruins everything. The quarterly earnings report is a crock of shit for shortsighted investors that value short term profit over long term vision.
Sadly, we’ve romanticized the IPO when in reality, the IPO is often the first sign of death for a company.
Social Media has business applications…undoubtedly. But when we make the entire thing about profit for investors, we take the soul out of it. This is why audiences fragment, and run to the new startups who are more concerned with building an audience than building revenue. This is why we lose interest once we start to be monetized.
Wall Street can’t seem to learn this lesson. Maybe they need less dollars and cents, and a bit more heart and soul.