I'm doing some research on alternatives to facebook. Social networks with different business models. Hopefully will have a spreadsheet with descriptions and info in the next few days.
As a user the value is not in the technology, but in the 'other users', yes, the old 'network effect'. So the essential question is ho to get overnight adoption of one of those alternatives by all your friends, which means, by extension, everyone.
Since this is unlikely, regulating Facebook into a privacy respecting business, hard and erring on the safe side, is the true alternative.