NEW YORK -- Facebook is going to be a $1 trillion company, as measured by valuation, once it really starts monetizing its platform, says Kevin Ryan, CEO of Gilt Groupe.
Ryan is also the cofounder and chairman of Business Insider, so standard disclaimers about conflict of interest apply to this post.
We pulled Ryan aside at the SAI Startup 2011 event to get his thoughts on the tech industry, and the competition for Gilt that's coming from Amazon.
He admits that Amazon is an intimidating competitor, but he says Gilt's advantage is that it is focused singularly on the flash-sales business, while it's a side project for Amazon.
Ryan's company just raised $138 million at a $1 billion valuation, so he's got money in the bank to fight off Amazon.
Since he just pulled in a big valuation for his company we got his thoughts of the current market for startups. He says there is, zero chance we're in a bubble.
We also tackled Google and Microsoft's future. You can hear our full interview in the clip below which we recorded in the lobby of Startup 2011.
Kevin Ryan is CEO & Founder of Gilt Groupe. He is a technology innovator and entrepreneur. Prior to Gilt Groupe, he was CEO of DoubleClick and helped build the interactive ad giant into a multi-billion dollar global industry leader, which was ultimately acquired by Google in March, 2008 for $3.1 billion. Kevin is also chairman of Business Insider.
See below for an audio conversation with Ryan:
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