Facebook’s ad business is a $3 billion mystery — from Peter Kafka

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

So the numbers are out, and we know that Facebook’s ad business really is huge.  And it really is growing like a weed.  Just like we thought.

But how exactly does Facebook’s ad business workWe still don’t know a lot about that part.

The S-1 mentions “advertising” 123 times, and “advertisers” another 117 times.  But when it comes to describing how the company actually sells advertising, it is vague.

And that’s why a good chunk of the S-1 talks about the overall market for advertising — not just Web advertising, but all advertising. The message: There is a lot of money being spent on ads, and as we get even bigger, and smarter, we’ll figure out how to capture more of it.

And at some point they may share some of that knowledge with the rest of us.

From DSC:
If this figure were $3,000, no big deal, right? But $3 billion?!  How is it that it’s a mystery when they’re making that kind of $$$$?  I wonder if that has anything to do with Mark Zuckerberg’s and Facebook’s perspectives on privacy…