3 ms·

You are presuming the stock market is somehow fair.

• 16s 16y ago
  Yes, you are right. I was confused. BMW engines deliver pigs to markets so people can eat. One can buy and sell virtual pigs on FaceBook by playing Farmville. To me, actual bacon is more valuable than pretend bacon.
  • justin 16y ago
    How "important" work is is only one factor in the creation of value. How much you produce, how it is valued by other people, what your margins are, what your future revenue streams will be -- these things are all factored into company value. There are many companies that make non-essentials that are valued more highly than farms and utilities.
    • wlievens 16y ago
      Exactly. Not to mention the fact that facebook is near monopoly status. If you were to add every single car manufacturer together, surely you'd get a much high valuation. If the social network space were as diverse (in terms of relative player weight, not total number of players), we wouldn't be having this discussion. Facebook's valuation reflects the value of the social-networking market perhaps more than its value as a single business?
• robryan 16y ago
  Still it's hard to say that a company that makes well under a dollar a user is worth more than someone with a profit margin of many thousands on each sale. That said though a lot of the companies I know on this list will probably face game changes in their industries soon.