http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18180861

Indeed. And the more the market pores over the FB prospectus – and recognises that the figures only add up ‘assuming there is no change in the market over time’ – the more the share price rocks.

The numbers are beguiling though. 70% of the world’s population (outside China) has a FB account. And they are giving the space away. You can see why brands are tempted…..

The difference is though, that we have kind of bought the unspoken deal in print and commercial TV that great content is paid for by the advertising that intersperses it.

Whereas the internet, especially sites like facebook and twitter, is inherently based upon free for all content and use. Ads become much more of an irritant in that context. That may be unfair, but unless you’re going to go around and explain things to every person in the civilised world, it’s just tough titty.

The saddest thing about all of this is that the great and holy Zuckerdude, chief lord of the geeks, cannot find a better way of making money out of his divine creation than flogging spaces to marketers. So much for a revolution.

FB shares fell another 8% yesterday. And there’s a class action coming because the NASDAQ systems went down in the first crucial hours of trading. Fun and games. Here’s a good article detailing Morgan Stanley’s bullish approach towards the IPO:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/05/21/as-facebooks-stock-struggles-fingers-start-pointing/?src=tp

But here’s the kicker. You’re buying media space. Currently the ‘cost per thousand’ ladder looks a bit like this:

Top of the heap:

Targeted pre-roll ads = circa £20 per ’000

An ‘average’ tv campaign:

TV spots = circa £6 per ’000

Bottom rung of the ladder:

Display ads online (banners etc) = £2 per ’000

So if you’ve got an online business model that is dependent on banners / skyscrapers etc you can expect to charge – and get – £2 per ’000.

Buried in FB’s prospectus is the fact that they have an eye-wateringly colossal ad inventory. And if you do the sums they are looking to put this huge inventory into the market at 28cents per ’000.

The base price is £2. FB are going to lower that to 18p.

Flooding the online market with such a mammoth volume of cheap ad space is going to have an extraordinary ripple effect.

If Ben is right – and FB users don’t look at ads, then it looks as if they are going to be served up a whole lot more ads to not look at – simply because the space will be so cheap.