Facebook is just starting to make money from its users

Facebook (FB) continues to gain users. More importantly, it’s finding new ways to make money from them, says Eric Steiman, manager of the Undervalued Opportunities investment model at Covestor.

“The company continues to have more information about people’s demographics, interests, and social networks than any company in history,” Steiman told the E-Commerce Times.  “They are beginning to use their leverage in order to monetize their user base.”

He added that the company’s “gift giving” application could be setting the stage for a larger e-commerce platform. Forbes recently suggested that the platform could be used for general shopping, as well as for arranging gift purchases for holidays, birthdays, weddings and other events.

“It’s still very early in the company’s history,” Steiman said, “and with billions of potential customers at its hands, making money in the future should not be an issue.”

Many investment managers continue to have doubts that Facebook stock is a compelling value. It is trading at more than 72 times earnings.

Still, Piper Jaffray made the argument in late August for why Facebook could be trading at a deep discount to future growth.

Steiman is one of five investment managers on the Covestor platform who holds Facebook shares.

You can read the entire E-Commerce Times story here.