金融观察：Facebook增长势头继续

Need more evidence that Facebook is growing? The social-networking company released plenty of new proof Tuesday.
需要更多证据证明Facebook正在增长吗？这家社交网站公司周二公布了大量新证据。

Among other things, the Palo Alto, Calif., start-up said that it has reached the 300 million user mark. That means Facebook added a whopping 50 million users from July, when it announced it crossed the 250 million user mark.
Facebook创始人兼CEO扎克博格证据之一就是，这家加州初创公司说，用户已经达到了3亿人。这意味着Facebook的用户比7月份时又大增5,000万，当时该公司宣布跨过了2.5亿用户大关。

Facebook spokesman Larry Yu declined to break down where the growth is coming from. But the company noted that 70% of its user base is now outside the U.S., signaling a big chunk of the growth is international.
Facebook发言人Larry Yu拒绝透露增长的具体来源。不过该公司表示，现在有70%的用户是在美国以外的地区，表明增长有很大一部分来自海外。

Facebook had good news on the business front, too. The company, which had previously said it expected to be cash-flow positive in 2010, reached that milestone last quarter, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post.
Facebook在业务领域上也传来喜报。该公司此前曾预计2010年现金流转为正数；公司首席执行长扎克博格(Mark Zuckerberg)在一篇博客文章中说，公司上个季度提前实现了这一目标。

This isn't a big surprise. Facebook has been 'profitable' by one (often fuzzy) accounting measure - earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization - for several quarters. Mr. Yu broke that down a bit more, saying the company was 'free cash flow positive' as opposed to 'operationally cash flow positive.' The second is easier to achieve because it would count cash Facebook has raised from private sources. But now Facebook is saying it earned more cash from its business alone than it spent on capital expenditures last quarter.
这个结果并不太令人吃惊。按照一种模糊的会计指标──利息、税项、折旧、摊销前收益(EBITDA)，Facebook已经盈利好几个季度了。Yu透露了一点儿详情，他说公司现在是“自由现金流为正”而不是“运营现金流为正”。“运营现金流为正”更容易实现，因为运营现金流会把公司从私人来源筹得的资金计算在内。不过现在Facebook说，上个季度公司单在业务上赚得的现金就超过了资本支出上的花费。

Several people familiar with the matter also said Facebook is on track to earn more than $500 million in revenue in 2009, which would represent more than 70% growth from 2008. Mr. Yu declined to comment on those figures and, when asked, said the company had no current plans for an IPO.
数位知情人士也说，2009年Facebook有望实现收入过5亿美元，这意味着比2008年增长70%以上。Yu拒绝对这些数据发表置评。当被问及公司是否有首次公开募股(IPO)的计划时，他说公司目前没有IPO的计划。

That likely won't stop the speculation about one. Russian investors Digital Sky Technologies recently bought Facebook's employee shares at a common stock valuation of $6.5 billion
这可能不会让人们停止对Facebook会进行IPO的猜测。俄罗斯投资者Digital Sky Technologies最近买进了大量Facebook员工股──估值达65亿美元的普通股。
Jessica E. Vascellaro