在最近一份关于网络私人社交媒介公司的调查研究显示，从年中至年末的半年期间中，社交网站Facebook的市场估值再提56%，远远超越了易趣和雅虎等老牌网络公司。

据纽约证券公司Nyppex估计，Facebook公司的“企业价值”大约为412亿美元，在Twitter，Zynga，Linkedln和Groupon等快速增长新兴公司中也是增长最为迅速的。值得一提的是上述公司均还未公开发行股票。

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因此，现在硅谷业内十分热衷于对上述公司进行估值，当然这一活动也包含了某些现实因素。据游戏邦了解，上述公司目前仍没有上市计划，仅有部分公司员工会通过私人市场出售手中股权，这也为少数投资商入股以上公司提供了一线机会，然而由于是购买私人股权，投资商们很难预计所投入的资金。

Nyppex通过私人和业内投资者的股票交易数据对Facebook和其他私人社交网络公司进行了估值。Nyppex对上述企业的估值将股票持有人，公司债券持有人和优先股股东持有的股票资金都计算入内，在扣除公司持有现金等。

通过这一方式，Nyppex发现11家私人网络社交媒介公司的总计估值从6月30日到12月1日之间提升了54%，即200亿美元。其中Facebook公司的增长占了较大比重，然而团购公司Groupon，社交游戏开发商Zynga和微博网站Twitter等企业的估值也均大于20亿美元。Nyppex公司的管理人员Laurence Allen还指出Facebook公司的估值已经超越了Viacom，CBS和Time Warner等老牌网络公司。

据Nyppex公司的研究数据显示，Facebook公司的估值虽然离谷歌（1490亿），亚马逊（735亿）等网络巨头公司仍有一段距离，但仍以绝对优势超越了易趣（328亿）和雅虎（184亿）等第一代网络公司。

另外在nyppex公司的研究报告还指出，芝加哥Groupon公司6月30日到12月1日期间公司估值提高303%，即36亿美元。而旧金山Twitter社交网站公司则提升131%，即21亿美元。

与之相反，据游戏邦了解，另两家新兴公司Zynga和Linkedln 2010年下半年的估值有所下降（约8%）。对此，Allen指出，Zynga公司限制股票转让的做法阻挡了部分投资者的热情。而Linkedln虽然稳步增长，但其增长速度无法与上述的业内公司相媲美。

今年10月，资产投资公司Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers发布了2亿5000万美元的sFund投资社交网络新兴公司。（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，转载请注明来源：游戏邦）

A new study is putting numbers on the explosive growth of privately held Internet social media companies — none more impressive than Facebook, which it estimates is worth significantly more than eBay or Yahoo, with its value up by 56 percent since the middle of the year.

According to research by New York securities firm Nyppex, Facebook’s “enterprise value” is $41.2 billion, by far the largest in a group that includes fast-growing startups such as Twitter, Zynga, LinkedIn and Groupon, all of which have not yet launched an initial public offering, or IPO.

Determining the worth of these startups has been a Silicon Valley parlor game of sorts, but it also has real-world implications. Unwilling so far to go public, many of the companies allow their employees to sell shares in private markets, helping the companies hang on to valued staff members. Those markets also give investors an early chance at a piece of the startups, but it is extremely difficult for them to estimate what they should pay.

Nyppex set out to estimate the worth of Facebook and other private social Internet companies by using data from private stock trades by individual and institutional investors. Because it is difficult to calculate a private company’s market value, Nyppex arrived at an estimate of the company’s enterprise value, which includes the claims of all the security holders in these companies, including bondholders and preferred shareholders, minus its cash on hand.

Market value, in contrast, is simply the price of a company’s shares multiplied by the number of shares outstanding.

Nyppex found that the value of 11 privately held Internet social media companies, many of which are located in the Bay Area, grew by a collective $20 billion, or 54 percent, from June 30 to Dec. 1.

While Facebook accounted for the bulk of that growth, online coupon broker Groupon, social games maker Zynga and microblogging site Twitter each has an enterprise value greater than $2 billion, according to the report.

“We try to be students of venture history, and we think this is a milestone event that’s taken place in the last six months,” said Laurence Allen, managing member at Nyppex, who also noted that Facebook is worth more than such old-line media companies as Viacom, CBS and Time Warner. “On top of that, these private companies are on record saying, ‘We intend to stay private for the foreseeable future.’ ”

The study compared the enterprise values of selected public and private companies. Facebook has a way to go to reach the enterprise value of public Internet giants like Google, at $149 billion, or Amazon, at $73.5 billion, but the enterprise value of the world’s largest social network is now significantly higher than the comparable values of first-generation Internet companies like eBay and Yahoo, at $32.8 billion and $18.4 billion, respectively.

With an enterprise value of $4.8 billion, Chicago-based Groupon mushroomed by 303 percent, or $3.6 billion, from June 30 to Dec. 1, Nyppex found. The estimate for San Francisco-based Twitter grew by 131 percent, or $2.1 billion.

However, two other prominent companies, Zynga and LinkedIn, each declined in value by a little more than 8 percent. Allen said Zynga has acquired a reputation for restricting share transfers, which may have discouraged some investors. He added that LinkedIn, while growing, may be suffering from a perception that it’s not growing as fast as other companies in the sector.

Venture capital giant Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers launched the $250 million sFund in October to invest in social Internet startups based on the conviction that eventually, startups built around people’s social connections can grow to rival the value of the Apples and Googles of the world.

“We think this is a sea change,” Bing Gordon, the Kleiner partner leading the sFund, said of the explosive growth in the value of social Internet startups.

“The bottom line is, this is a really good trend for people who live in Northern California,” Gordon added. “We’ve got a bit of a race because other parts of the world would like to be in the epicenter of social software, but we’re in the lead right now. So go team!”

Nyppex, of Rye Brook, N.Y., offers brokerage, advisory and other services in the so-called secondary market, where shares of privately held companies are sold by employees and other existing shareholders rather than by the companies themselves.

The firm did the research on private social media companies because investor interest has been intense, Allen said. （Source：mercurynews）