Facebook has gotten really, really, ridiculously good at selling your personal data to advertisers. If you’ve ever wondered just how and why Mark Zuckerberg is so ridiculously wealthy then take a moment to soak up these figures: The amount of money each Facebook user is worth to the company has risen from $10.03 last year to $12.76 this year, and it’s expected to balloon on up to $17/per user in the very near future. That revenue-per-user figure that Facebook is using to keep shareholders happy is up 20% from where was last year, and it’s nearly double what Twitter is making per user. Now consider that Facebook has 1.49 BILLION monthly active users and do the math.
Twitter is also making a fortune off of our data (follow me here for really bad jokes on the reg). Every Twitter user is worth $7.75 per year to the company, which is up $5.48 from last year. Twitter boasts over 300 million active users, so multiply that by $7.75 and you’ll get an idea of what we as a collective social media community is worth to the company.
Here are the figures for the rest of the web:
For some fucking reason a few websites on the Internet think that we as individuals are somehow entitled to some of this money that Facebook and Twitter is making off of us (see Guardian, HappyPlace). Why? I really cannot even begin to fathom their logic. They somehow think that we’re each entitled to some of that $12.76/year that Facebook makes off of us because we’re using a free service to each self-promote ourselves with photos of dogs and tailgating?
Furthermore, I wouldn’t expect ANY RATIONAL HUMAN BEING to pay me for the shit I say on Twitter on a daily basis. It’s basically a forum for me to take shots at UF and Miami fans while talking about how Jameis Winston will one day lead the Bucs to another Super Bowl. Also, I post pics of my dog. This is not something that anyone should be paid for, least of all me. So the people screaming about how they deserve a share of that $$$$$ need to shut their greedy mouths. If you want to make money off of Facebook then GO BUY SHARES like the rest of the civilized world.
For more on these Facebook and Twitter advertising figures from eMarketer CLICK HERE!