Will Facebook backer Digital Sky Technologies go public before Facebook? The Russian internet investment group, which has accumulated a five percent stake in the social network, has hired Goldman Sachs, along with two other investment firms, to explore an IPO next year, according to a report in the WSJ. If…

Facebook, which has been testing a new feature that lets users pose questions to the entire Facebook community and answer others, is finally launching the product, which it is calling Facebook Questions. The company says it will be including “ask question” as an option in the status box at the…

Facebook has gotten another top app developer to agree to use its Facebook Credits payment system. The latest to do so is RockYou, the sixth biggest app developer on the social network, which says in a statement that Credits will be the “exclusive virtual currency” in its games and apps…

Nothing too surprising in Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s high-profile interview with ABC (NYSE: DIS) World News’ Diane Sawyer today. As CNET‘s Caroline McCarthy notes, Zuckerberg tends to get the same questions—on privacy, on an IPO ... etc.—over and over. However, Zuckerberg does say he’s “quite sure” that he didn’t sign…

Facebook says it officially now has 500 million users, a milestone that the company had been expected to hit for months. The timing of the announcement seems to indicate that Facebook’s growth has not slowed globally, even as its growth has tapered off in more established markets like the U.S.

To the folks who think Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has “failed” at social networking, or is “losing” the space to Facebook - chillax; Google isn’t even trying.

For most of HTC’s existence, it was a little-known cellphone manufacturer making more Windows Mobile phones than anyone else in the world. Now the Taiwanese company has ambitions to create its own brand and be recognized as making the best Android smartphones. Turns out, it has just a few ideas…

Facebook is now telling users “it’s free (and always will be)” when they sign up because some users still think the company could pull a bait-and-switch on them, according to InsideFacebook, which first reported the change. That number had to be very high, considering the message is among the few…

Facebook, which had been oh-so-very slowly rolling out its Facebook Credits payment system, now seems intent on speeding that process up. Two new signs that Facebook is putting more emphasis on Credits: The social network said that Friendster-parent MOL Global would distribute gift cards in several Asian countries that people…

Well, this is surreal - the new UK prime minister David Cameron doing an old-buddies routine with Facebook’s CEO, part of a UK exercise using websites to hear citizens’ suggestions for financial austerity measures…

Digital Sky Technologies, Naspers and Tencent are amongst the hottest digital media investment actors in Russia, South Africa and China. And now they’re moving in on western markets, starting with eastern Europe and including stakes in Facebook, Zynga and Groupon.

Facebook is buying Nextstop, a travel review site launched a year ago by two high-profile Google (NSDQ: GOOG) alums. When we profiled the startup last June, co-founder Adrian Graham told us he thought there was a market in the crowded online reviews space for his site, which features short, Tweet-like…

Who’d be a big American web company in Europe? Two of the biggest, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Facebook, have been facing scrutiny in the union over the last year or two, and the heat is getting hotter…

It’s just a month of data, but a breakdown of Facebook’s growth in the U.S. among various age groups shows a big change. Usage among people 18-44 overall dropped, with about 175,000 fewer active users aged 26- to 34 on the site last month, according to data collected by InsideFacebook.…

For a large segment of women, checking Facebook has become a primary part of their morning routine, with the act of scrolling through status updates the first thing they do when waking. In a poll last month of 1,605 U.S. adults who use social media, 34 percent told NBC Universal’s…

CrowdStar, the big social game developer, says it will use Facebook’s virtual currency system in all of its games under a “five-year strategic relationship.” The startup is the second major social games maker to commit to using Facebook Credits, which the social network has been slowly rolling out. Last month,…

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on a talking circuit; he followed up an exclusive interview with Inside Facebook yesterday with a presentation at the Cannes Lions advertising festival today. At both, Zuckerberg seems to have been much more open about the company’s future than during his disastrous appearance at the…

The latest guess in what has become a favorite Silicon Valley parlor game: Reuters cites sources who say Facebook’s 2009 revenue was between $700 million and $800 million and that the company turned a profit in “the tens of millions.” Facebook has always been tight-lipped about its financial state—but the…

Social marketer Context Optional has acquired Unwrap, inc., the maker of Facebook app platform Buzzeo. The move expands Context Optional’s leadership position in providing comprehensive social marketing solutions for brands. Terms of the purchase weren’t disclosed. In a statement, Kevin Barenblat, CEO and co-founder, of San Francisco-based Context Optional, noted…