Google versus Facebook

With the world's largest social networking Web site, Facebook, going public, it is quite obvious that comparisons with Google will crop up. We have collated some figures and here is a list of numbers comparing the two giants. (IDG News Service)

Initial investments

Google received its initial funding of $100,000 in August 1998, before its inception, from Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. For its initial funding, Facebook received $500,000 from Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, in June 2004.

Market value

The current market value of Google is $203 billion and Facebook's value, at the time of the IPO, was $104 billion.

Personal worth

Mark Zuckerberg's 533.8 million shares of stock makes Zuckerberg worth, wait for it, $20.3 billion at age 28. On the other hand, Google founders, Sergey Brin (36) and Larry Page (37), are worth $17.5 billion each.

Opening price

Facebook's long-anticipated IPO was listed on Nasdaq on May 18, with its initial share price listed at $38 per share. Google went public on August 19, 2004. The company offered 19 million shares at a price of $85 per share.

Overnight millionaires

Around 850 Facebook employees became overnight millionaires after the company went public, which is only tad short of the 1,000 millionaires (approximately) that Google's IPO created.

The $100-million-plus factor

Facebook, valued at $104 billion, is the first U.S. company to go public with a $100-billion-plus valuation. On the other hand, Google had a market capitalization of more than $23 billion at the time of its IPO.

First-day gains

On the first day of trading, Facebook opened at $42.05 and hit a high of $45 before closing at $38.23 for a gain of just 0.6 per cent above the offer price. Google had a great first day at Nasdaq: Its stock opened at $100 and hit a high of $104.06 before closing at $100.34, 18 per cent above the IPO price.