Technology & Innovation — February 21, 2011

Dot-com Bubble 2.0

Loss-making Twitter has been valued at $10 billion. Facebook is said to be worth more than Ford. Now, for some investors, the alarm bells are starting to ring.

bigthinkeditor

Every week, one of the new generation of internet firms seems to attract a sky-high valuation. Zynga, the social-network games company that has tempted millions to grow virtual vegetables in its FarmVille game, has been valued at $9 billion. Profitless Twitter is said to be worth $10 billion. Groupon, vendor of online discounts, rejected a $6 billion offer from Google and is considering a flotation with a potential valuation of $15 billion. Tech-watchers say this is just the start: the real boom will come when Facebook, the head boy of the new dotcom frenzy, goes public, probably next year.

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