Facebook wants to be a Blue Chip

Founder and CEO of the social-networking giant Facebook has spent the last 18 months methodically preparing to look and act more like a Blue Chip business.

"There was a period in Microsoft's evolution where they said, we want to put a computer on everyone's desk," said Zuckerberg in a recent interview.

"That's the way that I want to run Facebook...We want to be operating in a way that we're working towards this longer vision of where we think the world should be," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Facebook plans to file early next year with the Securities and Exchange Commission to take the stock public in the second quarter of 2012, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The IPO could raise as much as 10 billion dollars at a valuation of more than 100 billion dollars.

As hard as it is to reach a public offering, it is even more difficult for young businesses to play head-to-head against tech stalwarts such as Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

But interviews with Zuckerberg and others inside Facebook reveal the eight-year-old company is trying to emulate the influence, staying power, and meticulousness of the biggest technology companies.

Since last year, Facebook executives have been crafting dummy scripts for quarterly earnings calls, addressing imaginary questions from analysts about the company's revenue and profit, people familiar with the matter say.

They have even written a top-secret draft of an IPO prospectus, a role traditionally left to bankers.

The company's chief financial officer, David Ebersman, has been professionally auditing Facebook's financial statements each quarter, say people familiar with the matter, and avoiding the accounting approaches that raised questions for Groupon and Zynga.

The company has both scale and a strong brand, says Lise Buyer, a Silicon Valley-based IPO consultant.

But the big question, says Buyer is whether Facebook has the ability to operate profitability through ups and downs.

"The missing piece that we haven't seen yet is reliability. The blue chip stocks are the ones that people talk about belonging in widows and orphans funds. Historically, technology IPOs don't make that list. Because of its scale, Facebook could be different," she said.

Facebook IPO sparks dreams of riches, adventure

Travelling to space or embarking on an expedition to excavate lost Mayan ruins are normally the stuff of adventure novels.
But for employees of Facebook, these and other lavish dreams are moving closer to reality as the world's No. 1 online social network prepares for a blockbuster initial public offering that could create at least a thousand millionaires.

The most anticipated stock market debut of 2012 is expected to value Facebook at as much as $100 billion, which would top just about any of Silicon Valley's most celebrated coming-out parties, from Netscape to Google Inc.

Youth-centric brands such as KFC, Kurkure, Philips, HUL's Axe integrate TV ads with Facebook apps to drive sales

NEW DELHI: Youth-centric brands such as KFC, PepsiCo's Kurkure,Philips and HUL's Axe have extended their catchy television commercials into whackyFacebook apps to drive traffic in the virtual world and sales in the real world.

If the Philips app lets users try out all the different looks that John Abraham sports in its television campaign for male grooming products on themselves, Kurkure challenges people to find the right mix for its different variants by trying different ingredients, extending its 'Ingredients of India' television campaign. Thousands have signed up for these apps.

"With apps running on a parallel with TV commercials, the recall value for the brand improves drastically as consumers are directly interacting with the product," says ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar. And brands say this media integration strategy has helped increase product recalls and boost sales.

Dhruv Kaul, director, marketing, at fast-food chain KFC, says, "Though it is difficult to measure sales through such apps, it has helped drive further engagement with our target group which is young adults and teenagers."

In the latestKFC Krushers Kafeccino television commercial, a group of youngsters click the expressions of their friend as soon as she tastes the drink for the first time. Now, Kafeccino's Facebook 'Kool Hours' app allows people to upload their photos and earn points for every picture and caption. As many as 2,500 users uploaded their photographs in seven days.

Around 47% of Indian Facebook users are in the 18-24 age group, according to Socialbakers, a company tracking social media statistics.

This makes the social networking site a prime destination for all youth-centric marketers. "A relevant app helps generate buzz about the product and becomes a popular topic of discussion in one's peer group. The target group feels that they are 'with it'," says marketing expert Harish Bijoor, CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. "In that sense, it connects with their mindset easily," he adds.

Philips would second that. The number of 'likes' on its Facebook page increased over 37,600 in a month since it introduced an app that allows men to try out the different beard styles as shown in its John Abraham-starrer TV ad for men's grooming kit.

PepsiCo's Facebook app for its Kurkure snack-based on its 'Ingredients of India' TV campaign with catch phrase 'badal jaa'-also has created a lot of interest with some 20,000 users trying it.