.jpg "Why Facebook borrowed $100 million for servers")
Valleywag
It's true: Facebook held a prom for its employees in San Francisco last night at the Metreon. The shopping mall-cineplex's fourth floor was tastefully decorated with white flowers, and the gathered Facebookers were dressed up — and so youthful, you might think it was an actual prom, save for the booze being poured at the open bars. (Ubiquitous photographee Julia Allison, who was invited, did not attend, staying in New York for a book party instead.) Why throw a prom? Facebook is going all-out for prom season this year, with a tie-in to Sony's Prom Night and a prom-dress partnership with Sears. Why not reward employees working on prom marketing campaigns with a throwback prom of their own?
But besides the commercial rationale, there's a more disturbing reason for Facebook to throw a prom for its employees. With its cafeterias, gyms, and volleyball courts, Google likes to makes its employees feel like they never left college. Could Facebook be trying to make its workers feel like they never left high school? Infantilization is an effective employee-retention program. But it is not a particularly attractive one.
More pictures from Facebook's prom.
Comments
A classy get together for the privileged few. Funded purely by hard-earned venture capital no less.
Enjoy your cake boys, you'll be in trailers soon!
But unlike the average high schooler, these kids didn't get laid after prom
I don't trust Zuck, he has no beard. How can you trust a guy like that?
Apparently, all the decent venues were booked. The Metreon is a wasteland.
that's depressing
seriously? Are they all 12? oh wait.....
@Bornean: I can't wait for the next series of Web 2.0 books -- you know, the ones that are published after the bubble bursts -- that laughs up its sleeve at a company with a multibillion dollar valuation despite not making a dime throwing a prom. This is '80s excess at its finest -- Less Than Zero + with a little touch of WebVan.com and Glengarry Glen Ross hucksterism thrown in for flava.
@jackparsons: I volunteer myself to write that. You hear me, publishers?
@jackparsons: I dunno, when the 'fuckedcompany' book came out, much as I hated all the people in it, it was still unreadable....
@Ted Dziuba: No fair. I've been wanting to write that book for a year now.
Also, isn't this the same company that is borrowing another $100 mil for more SERVERS? Just checking.
Has no one here gone to a corporate sponsored event before?
Why are these pictures so awful? Did they ban photography?
Say what you will about Yahoo, at least they let us snap photos at their parties.
@westphalia: Yes, some of us have and these photos are pathetic.
This looks more like bible study group, not a party. Nobody is having any fun.
The most hilarious thing about all of this? The photos are watermarked "Valleywag.com." These shots are worth stealing?!?
Ahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!
dont hate just cuz you cant go.
even Julia didn't go this time. but I'm notJulia.
I'm bored. Thus:
There's a VC who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to Facebook
And when she gets there she knows if the doors are closed
With a Tweet she can get what she came for
Woe oh oh oh oh oh
And she's buying a stairway to Facebook
There's a prom going on but she'll be up by dawn
And you know she'll run three miles farther
In a cube there's some dude who's got the attitude
Sometimes all our events are misgiven
Woe oh oh oh oh oh
And she's buying a stairway to Facebook
There's a feeling I get when I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen there's an exit strategy
And then all of my Friends will de-Friend me
@westphalia: Yes, I've been to a corporate event before. I've also seen a dog ride a unicycle in the circus. Your point being?
Facebook has now apparently received $500 million in venture capital. There are many who do not believe it can be sold for that much now, and that the asking price dwindles by the day as marketers figure out what we already know:
a) Advertising on social networking sites sucks
b) At the end of the day, the only way to make money on them is advertising.
I call throwing cash at that a horrible piece of shit idea, like investing in a horse doctor school six months after the Model T rolled off the assembly line.
A company with a non-existent business model other than "get bought by someone with more money than we owe to investors" setting still more money on fire on bullshit events like this = awesome. These people should be having their office Xmas party catered by Arby's, not holding a make-believe prom for addled hipsters and incompetent engineers.
Do you have any other questions, pum'kin?
I want to see a dog ride a unicycle.
Ahh bubble life.
Living in inflated extravagance.
[jimrock.tumblr.com]
parties like this are a great way to keep its employees minds off the fact that in 12 months the company will either
1. be broke
2. be owned 99% by VC's
A prom? That's nice. Fitting too...
They'll collapse like a cheap lawn chair.
@raincoaster: Way to call the tune!
Ooh, and it makes me wonder...
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