When a company files to go public it has to lay out in black and white the biggest risks that face the firm. What could kill it? What could undermine its business? Wipe out all its investors' money? Executives are required to reveal this by law.
It makes great reading, so I've been flipping through Facebook's IPO filing. And by far my favorite section is labeled "Risk Factors." Sure, there's some gobbledygook, but the part on mobile advertising is fascinating — if you pull it apart.
Roughly half of Facebook's users check in on mobile devices every month, but so far the company isn't making any money on mobile. Not a dime. It doesn't even sell mobile ads.
