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Related question: can they even pay? The vast majority of the new users of Facebook are from developing countries with low income. There is no way to make them voluntarily pay for access to a social network.

Initially VC, then advertisers. It's more of the same shit but ridiculous given FB's size to think the market can only have one player. The way to accelerate network growth is base on an open source standard and encourage competitors using it.

Split them up into different services by different vendors. A better* openid would make this easy.

* Better to include more privacy.

Who pays for the real friends?

The payment isn't for the friends, but for the environment in which you meet them:

You could pay membership fees for a club to be able to use their rooms to hang out with your peers. (paid community server)

You can meet at your home, where you have to clean up and bring snacks yourself. (personal hosting)

Or you can meet in a cafe, where access is free, with the expectation that there will be a different but related financial transaction (food and beverages). ("free" servers paid by ads)

I can't think of a good analogy of meeting your friends in a fully public space.