Silicon Valley Start-Ups Awash in Dollars, Again

Link

By Ross Fadner,The New York Times

Silicon Valley bubble talk is bubbling up once again. The action this time is taking place in the private sector, leaving the public somewhat safer; even so, a wider bubble burst could drive inflation and send the economy into recession. The telltale signs are there: Internet companies with funny names, little revenue and few customers are commanding high prices. And once again, Internet advertising is being seen as a bottomless trough of cash on which to base one's business model.

Worryingly, audience inflation--not revenue--is driving up prices for Web firms, the very thing that brought about the first Internet bust. The social network Facebook is a good example; valuations of $15 billion are absurd. That's nearly half the market cap of Yahoo, a company earning 32 times Facebook's expected 2007 revenue.

The digestif spin

Some of these peeps have drunk a little too much Absinth.

i.e. delusional

I feel the reasons everyone is going nuts over these platforms is because the internet is a mess. TV is a mess, radio is a mess. There is still no tracking for outdoor...
We are battling for the consumers' attention, and if Facebook becomes the stickiest site in the market, well then, the demand will be greater and the squabbles better!

In the future, these sites will be the sites that deliver the most accuracy in targeting. It is crazy that some corporations are paying astronomical prices, but they see the future.
The only issue is picking the cream of the crop.