In March of this year when Forbes’ list of billionaires was revised and saw Mark Zuckerberg rocket up the list from sixteenth to six by adding over $11 billion to his worth in 2015, a bigger gain than any other for the year, I wrote that he wasn’t done yet but might struggle this year to supplant Jeff Bezos who was nearly a billion ahead of him and kept him out of the top five. It’s going to be close after last week.
Facebook continues to rise, Zuckerberg adds to his personal coffers
While Bill Gates still heads the list of the world’s richest and has for 17 of 22 years, only supplanted by Carlos Slim and Warren Buffett on those five occasions, Mark Zuckerberg continues to rise through the ranks since the debacle that was Facebook’s original public offering. In fact, the stock lost money out of the gate, that is nothing short of a thing of the past, which, has seen the stock more than triple since it began trading on May 18, 2012 after opening at $42.05. As of this writing, Facebook was approaching today’s bell trading at $133.22 with under 10 minutes left. The stock had quite the day on Monday with it rising $1.15 per share or 0.87%.
Facebook is primed for another potential big jump in the coming weeks when it makes a quarterly earnings call. While it could also recede most analysts are confident that Facebook will deliver another big quarter as the company often surprises the market on the positive side and enjoys a big bounce. This quarter’s earnings will also report on two new revenue streams and services as Facebook’s video streaming Facebook Live has now enjoyed a full quarter as has the company’s food delivery service in a number of markets which we will speak to in a bit.
According to Forbes, last week saw Zuckerberg add $1.6 billion last week taking him to around $56.6 billion and again as I just mentioned the stock has seen another near one percent gain to start its week as the bell is two minutes from ringing.
I don’t know that $1.6 billion means that much to someone who already had, well, a net worth of $55 billion but surely Zuckerberg would like to see his name in the top five on the Forbes’ list for the first time as he looks to cement that achievement and rise through the top five ranks.
Real time Forbes data has him in fifth right now and another day like today, assuming Facebook can hold these gains through the week, will see Zuckerberg continue to close the gap on fourth place Warren Buffett. Amacio Ortega, the owner of Zara, and Carlos Slim round out the top five with Zuckerberg, Gates and Buffett.
More revenue and engagement from Facebook Live, which launched and ad campaign today?
As I wrote in an earlier piece today about Instagram beginning testing of Live Video streaming, something that parent company Facebook introduced earlier this year, Facebook launched phase one of a two-phase advertising campaign today after announcing the campaign last week.
The first phase which began today is designed to bring awareness to Facebook Live through a series of television spots which feature actual live streams that were shared using the service. Additionally, the company will do similar 15-second spots on its own platform, yes, Facebook
Beginning in about two weeks, Facebook will shift to phase two which focuses on tutorials for users interested in going live.
