June 20, 2012
If a week is a long time in politics, just think how truer that is of the technology world. Only a few days ago, Facebook was the toast of the street with its record-breaking initial public offering. Founder Mark Zuckerberg even managed to soften his somewhat nerdy image by marrying his long-time girlfriend soon after the flotation. But no sooner had he tied the knot and the recriminations about his company began. A sharp fall in the stock price in the first days of trading gave Zuckerberg and his colleagues an early introduction to the perils of the market.
To be sure, nobody can know how the growing shift of social networking to smart phones will affect advertising revenues (supposedly behind this drop in the market value of the company). But growing concerns about privacy are likely to dog not just Facebook but others that prosper by persuading individuals to become more connected.
