Facebook rattling tin in Dubai?

Electricity is expensive... bitch

By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Financial News, 1st November 2008 00:36 GMT

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As more and more people spend their time uploading digital narcissism to Facebook, the uber-social networking site seems to have burned through its Microsoft-juiced funding much quicker than expected.

According to sources whispering in the ears of Michael Arrington, Facebook is "testing" the capital markets again - despite raising $240m from Microsoft last year and another $235m this.

This week, the TechCruncher has reported, Facebook chief financial officer Gideon Yu is in Dubai, "possibly" discussing fund raising options with Dubai International Capital, the private equity firm owned by the city's ruler - who also happens to be the Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates.

Sources told Arrington that Facebook is spending "well over" a million dollars a month in electricity alone and "likely" another $500,000 for bandwidth, as shameless social networkers post billions of photos and other solipsistic pixels. Recently, the company said that users upload two to three terabytes of photos each day. And every second, it serves as many as 300,000 pics the other way.

The word from TechCrunch is that Facebook has set aside $100m to buy 50,000 servers this year and next. And it's supposedly buying a $2m NetApp storage system each and every week.

All this should be taken with a grain of salt. That said, we wouldn't be surprised if mammoth electricity bills have Zuckerberg and Co. sidestepping a melting US economy for large money bags in the Middle East.®

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