Comment: Facebook's not the new Google

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 20 Aug 2007 at 15:46

Microsoft and Google are also spectacularly good at making money. I've yet to see any evidence that Facebook can generate significant profit from its millions of users. There's no charge to use the site or make contact with friends - even Friends Reunited had the gumption to tap you for a fiver if you wanted to get in touch with the girl you used to ping rubber bands at in Geography lessons.

Facebook has an Ebay-style Marketplace that doesn't seem to be gaining much traction, and lets you buy "virtual gifts" for friends, but unless I've badly underestimated the pent-up demand for graphics of strawberries dipped in chocolate, I think we can assume that's no pot of gold.

There is, of course, plenty of ad revenue to be creamed from such a large audience, but that business model hinges on retaining users, which, as we've established, is far from simple.

All of which makes Facebook's decision to resist the quick buck incredibly brave. The company reportedly turned down a $1 billion bid from Yahoo last year, and it says it has no plans to go public until 2009, by which time it could conceivably be more of a social leper than a social network. "If we got an offer of $10 billion, we would probably listen to them," the company's director, Peter Thiel claimed recently. Listen? I'd Zombie-bite their hands off.