facebook is really two companies for the price of one: Areally nifty, visionary, we’re|going|to|change|the|worldinnovator and a mind|numbingly technocratic/grind|it|out money|making machine.
Let’s take the second first. The company reported full|year earnings Wednesday, and by any measure facebookis an impressive business. Largely by selling ads that runon cell phones, facebook’s 2014 revenue increased 58%to $12.5 billion. The company earned almost $3 billion.Nearly 900 million people used facebook daily duringDecember.
Unless your exceedingly interested in the intricacies ofadvertising technology, there’s almost nothing interestingabout how facebook makes money. Listening to adiscussion of its financial results is a forced marchthrough the muddy fields of organic impressions,increasing velocity of advertising efficiency, right|handrails, and the like. In discussing facebook’s desire to be agood partner to software developers, Founder and CEOMark Zuckerberg referred to the company’s efforts atbuilding a “cross|platform platform.” Sheryl Sandberg,facebook’s chief operating officer, piped in that “ourultimate goal is to be the critical business partner to ourclients.”
Yawn|inducing, perhaps, but powerful too. facebook nowgets nearly 70% of its revenue from mobile devices, upfrom nothing a few short years ago. Considering its rapidgrowth, it is astounding that revenue from ads that runon deskTOP computers only growing at a 1% clip forfacebook. It’s worth repeating: Not very long ago deskTOPads were all that facebook had. facebook also has abalance sheet nearly as big as its 2014 revenues: Itended the year with $11.2 billion in cash.
But wait, wasn’t there something about a vision andmaking the world safe for something other than efficientmobile ad units?
Indeed. Zuckerberg did something unique for an investorearnings call: He shared a three|, five|, and 10|yearvision for his company. The three|year vision includescreating better services for people and, critically,businesses while growing facebook’s “community.” Thefive|year plan envisions making businesses of WhatsAppand Messenger, an acquisition and a separate messagingapp, respectively. The 10|year plan involves Zuckerberg’sgoal of helping every person in the world obtain anInternet connection andthen plopping them down into a virtual|reality worldstemming from facebook’s Oculus VR purchase.
It’s the kind of stuff that only a company that’s printingmoney from its gigantic audience can afford to thinkabout.
Toward the end of the earnings call an investor askedZuckerberg if it made sense to spending so much moneyto provide Internet connections to customers whowouldn’t generate sufficient revenue for facebook torecoup the investment. Why, the analyst asked, does thismatter to investors? Zuckerberg’s response neatlysummed up his thinking about facebook. “It matters tothe kind of investors that we want to have because we’rea mission|focused company,” Zuckerberg said. “Part ofthe sub|text of your question is that if we were onlyfocused on making money we’d simply focus on sellingmore ads in the U.S. But that’s not the only thing we thinkabout here.”
At facebook FB 0.61% , they certainly think about makingmoney. Indeed, when you make so much of it you alsocan think about creative ways to make even more, even ifthe payout is way off into the future.
nifty: adj.俏皮的，非常好的
visionary: adj.空想的，幻想的; 预言性的; 有远见的;
technocratic: adj.由技术专家官员组成的;受技术官僚影响的
intricacy: n.错综复杂; 很难理解
muddy: adj.泥泞的; 暗的; 模糊的; 糊涂的
velocity: n.速率，速度; 周转率; 高速
astounding: adj.使人震撼的
balance sheet: n.资产负债表; 财务情况表
gigantic: adj.巨大的，庞大的; 巨人似的
社交网站facebook有两张面孔：一张是时髦且富有远见、志在改变世界的革新者;另一张则是单调乏味技术专家式加埋头苦干的赚钱机器。
大家先来看看facebook的后一张面孔。上周三，该公司公布了全年营收，不论以何种标准来衡量，其营业额都非常不错。
2014年，facebook的营收增长58%，达到125亿USD，主要来自手机端广告销售。facebook2014年净收益将近30亿USD。截至去年12月，天天有近9亿人用facebook。
除非你对复杂难懂的广告技术很有兴趣，不然，facebook的盈利模式听起来相当无趣。听人讨论其财务营业额，简直好比在泥地里强行推进，让人痛苦不堪，耳边充斥着各种术语：有机揭秘次数、广告投放率递增速度、右边栏，凡此种种，不一而足。谈到facebook期望成为软件开发者非常不错的合伙人，公司开创者兼首席实行官马克•扎克伯格称，facebook正努力建设“跨平台平台”。facebook首席运营官谢丽尔•桑德伯格插话道：“大家的最后目的，是成为顾客的重点商业伙伴。”
这种话可能让人大打哈欠，但却富有感染力。facebook现在近70%的收入来自手机端，而就在短短几年前，手机端收入几乎为零。相较于其高速增长，facebook台式PC端广告营收的增速仅1%，不由得让人震撼。值得一提的是，就在不久前，facebook几乎全部收入都来自PC端广告。facebook目前资产负债表上的现金规模几乎可媲美其2014全年营收：截至2014年底，该公司坐拥112亿USD现金。
等等，除去高效的移动广告单元外，facebook不是还有个要使世界变得更安全的愿景吗?
没错，扎克伯格做了件在投资者收益电话会议上极为罕见的事：他推荐了facebook的三年、五年与十年愿景。其三年愿景包含，为大家与企业提供更好的服务，同时使facebook的“社区”不断进步。五年计划是使WhatsApp和Messenger两款应用分别达成商业化。十年计划则包含：使全球所有人都能连上网络，并使他们进入facebook回收的Oculus VR创造的虚拟现实世界。
如此的愿景，只有拥有大量用户、日进斗金的公司才敢有。
收益电话会议接近尾声时，有一位投资者问扎克伯格，斥巨资帮助那些不可以给facebook带来足够收入的顾客接入网络，以至于收不回本，如此做是不是合理?该剖析师问道，这同投资者有哪些关系?扎克伯格的回答，非常不错地概括了他对facebook的想法。他说道：“对于大家想要吸引的投资者来讲，这一点非常重要，由于大家是一家专注于使命的企业。你提的问题的潜台词是，假如大家只关心赚钱，大家会专注于在美国卖出更多广告。但大家并不只关心赚钱。”
不过，facebook一定有琢磨赚钱的事。确实，当你大赚特赚时，你可以想些有创意的方法来赚更多的钱，就算回报要很长时间将来才能看到。
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（责任编辑：何莹莹）
