Steve Parks

Facing up to Facebook's Books

Are you on Facebook? Great - now, when was the last time you paid them any money?

The answer, of course, is never. As with many companies on the web they don't charge their customers for the service. Instead they have to try to find other sources of revenue, such as advertising - but that's a tough market at the moment.

However, Facebook has now reported the impressive news that it is now EBITDA positive (that is, it makes a profit before taking into account certain financing costs. It stands for Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation). In Facebook's case the key figure is depreciation - because it is making so much capital expenditure on the technology infrastructure to run such a rapidly growing network. Because of this it's still not cashflow positive.

TechCrunch reports:

The company is likely spending well over a $1 million per month on electricity alone, say experts we

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