Facebook Co-founder Eduardo Saverin announced in an interview that the social media website's biggest risk may be that it is growing too fast.
Saverin acknowledged that while the website's growth may be good for numbers, governments and consumers may not be able to keep up, especially in terms of privacy.
"The biggest risk is to grow too fast, which is actually a huge asset, but ironically, I think that's one of the biggest risks," Saverin told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday, Feb. 21 at the newspaper's Unleashing Innovation conference in Singapore. "When you grow too fast, it's hard to iterate, educate."
Saverin's statement comes amid skepticism that Facebook will continue to dominate competitors like Google, who are trying to enter the social arena. Facebook was beat by Microsoft in a recent Reuters poll that surveyed technology companies, asking if they were cooler than they were two years ago.
In response to such threats, Facebook Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced plans in January to increase spending by 50 percent, or $1.4 billion, which will be used to hire staff and boost advertising tools. If the company does increase spending by this amount, however, then revenue must grow by 28 percent just for net income to remain flat. The company increased spending by 67 percent one year ago.
"There are a lot of technology companies out there with tremendous resources and engineering and very experienced talent that are trying to enter the space of creating a social graph, an interest graph," Saverin said.
Facebook currently holds about 1.1 billion users. Saverin participated in forming the company with Zuckerberg. A legal dispute over stake in the company ensued, resulting in a settlement for an undisclosed amount.
Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to Singapore around the time of Facebook's stock market launch. Some were critical of the move, saying that Saverin did so to avoid taxes on his $3 billion Facebook share. Saverin, however claims he did so to immerse himself in the Asian startup scene. The entrepreneur has a net worth of $1.6 billion.
