Given this, Facebook need to sustain its lead; otherwise, its fad may well be replaced overnight by a cooler, smarter and more innovative service. Who knows, Google might end up buying Facebook at a cheaper deal when that happens.

These statistics are very interesting. I am writing a piece about Facebook growth in the Czech Republic and I am looking for similar statistics. I want to know how the introduction of the Czech language option affected membership. Can you help?

I would very much appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Christina

I would like to hear more about this. Maybe a expose.

By cornering the global social networking market, facebook is positioning itself to be the center of an individual’s web identity. As the web becomes more democratized and social (i.e. facebook Connect), this identity will prove pivotal for serving relevant targeting marketing campaigns to users, not just on facebook, but where ever they traverse on the web.

So, in essence, critics who call for facebook to profit immediately, this instant (!), do not understand the history of the web and/or are incompetent in understanding the foresight of the social networking marketplace. Go back to typing on typewriters old fogies.

that is their implied valuation. sorry i should not have said $4 billion a year company. that is my bad.

by the way they have about $400 million in revenues.

also on your question about correlation between money raised and the number of users, there are many examples to the contrary. a lot of companies which raised a lot of money failed to get a large number of users. one couldn’t really make a scientific conclusion :-)

Facebook is paying roughly 3 USD to acquire a user. Is this a startup? Is this innovation, or word of mouth growth? Google…25 million total VC investment, went public, makes tons of cash, truly innovative, and a real success story.

Blooggers are not really looking at Facebook in the right way. That much money behind them, they can’t fail, yet it is amazing that they are still struggling to make a buck. People need to understand that PR campaigns, below the line promotions, and media endorsements have driven facebook’s growth, at a hefty price tag. This is no start up folks, but a well-calculated, HEAVILY FUNDED, mega experiment of American domination.

I am not my job telling a $4-billion a year company how to monetize their audience. IT is THEIR job to figure this out. Seriously to ask me to do that is “unfair.”

Facebook is making a run at rapidly spreading its service while other services like Myspace are focusing on monetization. Facebook is grabbing headlines for its growth, and very few bloggers are actually question this strategy. I find it refreshing that Om doesn’t just regurgitate press releases that favor Facebook like the rest of them. The question is poignant: congratulations on your growth, but is it really the right strategy?

It’s just Om’s job to solve Facebook’s business problems. He’s a journalist (especially compared to other tech bloggers out there).

Anon