What the value of Facebook tells us about America

Facebook opens on Nasdaq yesterday reflecting the innovations in America. Logo via Facebook.

In places like Davos, Switzerland, where the power brokers of the world meet each year at the World Economic Forum, recent conversation has been about the economic decline of America. But, according to Daniel Gross, the launch of Facebook on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday (May 18) is testimony to the fact that some entrepreneurial business achievements are still made only-in-America.

Facebook was started in a college dorm with very little investment capital, and now, at its New York Stock Exchange launch, may be worth 20, 50, or 150 billion dollars.

According to Gross, the United States has demonstrated, throughout its history, the capacity to build new ways of connecting people together. Whether this was by telegraph, railroad, an interstate highway system, or most recently, the internet. No other country – including China or Russia – has this history or credential.

Facebook, like these other networking systems, encourages people to do business in new ways. The greatest value of Facebook, says Gross, may not come from its advertising dollars, but from its incalculable usefulness for millions of consumers who can share information, connect, and present themselves to the world, and….all for free.

Source: Yahoo! Finance