And I don’t find it disturbing at all that Zuckerberg is more focused on vision than finances. He’s not trained in finances, and (correctly) leaves that segment of his business to the very capable people that he’s hired to look after it for him. Sometimes the mark of a good leader is the ability to hire people who are smarter than you, and leave them alone to do what they do well. Vision about a product is what put Zuckerberg where he is today, not any sort of deep financial understanding.

My feeling is (again, with Alex) that he should continue to make sure the ship is sailing the right direction, and let a well-paid and well-trained crew worry about the economics of getting everybody fed.

give him a Break guys ..the Chap is just 23 year old .

@Alex N., I’ll try not to take that as a flame, but I would like to hear from some of these apps developers who are making money in the millions. No one I’ve spoken with seems to be making much money from their applications through advertising so far, so perhaps these are people doing transactional fees? I would love to talk to them.

Instead, Zuck is doing for Facebook what every other startup should do – focus on value for the user, and give the users what they want first. “Monetization” will resolve itself. Besides, in the world of free, who wants to listen to blabbing about “But if no one will pay for it, then how valuable can the Facebook platform be?” You are using his interview at SXSW as a source? As a member of the “press”, please don’t forget what a mess interviews can be, and stop being such a hypocrite. Also, remember, that if Zuck were to run out of money, I assure you, he won’t have trouble finding more. Facebook isn’t leaving the party, and Zuck probably won’t be asking you for a dance any time soon :p.

Again, this comment wasn’t meant to be a flame. But, the more I thought about the context of what I was saying, the more upset I felt about ridiculous comments thrown at Zuck’s inability to “monetize” – and that’s just pure b.s. – pardon my bluntness, but if I want “ragù alla bolognese”, I’ll go to an Italian restaurant.

Mr. Zuckerberg could be the first leader of an American Internet communications company in history to stand up and say: Enough is enough – we’ve got plenty of cash & we’re going to take this moment to stand for something. No, sorry. He’s got about as much “starry-eyed idealism” as Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Sergei Brin.