MySpace is in the black, and has been there quite a while. People tend to forget that.
Facebook is more ambitious, more talented, and more successful than MySpace. Their goal is to make a web site that revolutionizes how the world interacts with itself, and they've been doing an astonishingly good job at it. When I deleted my presence online, I kept Facebook, because it was capable of adapting to the lifestyle I wanted to lead.
Perhaps one day Facebook will meet a challenge it cannot overcome. Until then, it hasn't failed with practically everything, and it's steamrollering every would-be competitor. It has every reason to expand.
I'd be happy if half the social networks I love could do the same, so I could quit worrying if they're doomed to shut down as soon as the VCs get bored with them.
Facebook, meanwhile, has no competition. None. They are free to expand as they see fit, and currently they're in the black and so can afford expansion.
Citation please. They owe a lot of people a lot of money.
I don't know where you're getting this Facebook has no competition business. Everything on the web has competition, and Facebook is no exception.
That implies that they're making an impressive revenue. Right now, Facebook has money to burn. If they find that they can't increase revenue, they'll be able to significantly cut back and make a profit, similar to what MySpace did recently. For now, they don't need to worry about that.
I don't know where you're getting this Facebook has no competition business. Everything on the web has competition, and Facebook is no exception.
According to Alexa, Facebook has five times the daily reach of MySpace, which is its next-closest competitor. It's got six times the reach of Twitter, which is called its competitor even though it's not. It's fifteen times larger than the number three network, which is Hi 5.
That's user interaction. Facebook also has more pictures than any other web site in existence, more than Flickr, which is the largest photo storage site in existence.
Barack Obama, who may not be the largest Facebook page, has twice the followers of APlusK on Twitter, and on Facebook he has vastly more functionality than APlusK does on Twitter: he can push nearly anything at users directly from the site, no third-party needed.
It's hard to track Note use and Video use since Facebook's based on privacy. However, I'd make a bet that Facebook's videos are enough to place it in the Top 10 for video sites worldwide. I don't know how I'd compare notes.
Google Search has competition, because it's possible to force search engine use through products. (I've used Bing a few times in the last month because I see it when I search on Facebook.) Yahoo Mail has competition, because its service has certain aspects that are unpleasant. (Email ads, for instance.) Facebook has none. In fact, because Facebook's core service is so incredibly tight, I'd bet that Facebook could upgrade nothing for two-three years, and it would still maintain its lead over competitors, solely for the reason that it can't lose that lead unless users see something elsewhere that's so compelling it makes them switch. I can't think of anything that compelling, save perhaps mobile networking, and Facebook's already the top phone-based social network despite not yet having location-based technologies.
They are making impressive revenue, but impressive revenue is a relative term. Impressive compared to their pageviews? Not really. Impressive compared to what MySpace is making? It's about the same. Impressive compared to what my blog makes on a monthly basis? Hell yes.
For now, they don't need to worry about that.
If I'm an investor in any tech startup, those are the words I never want to hear from my investment. Being cavalier about squandering my success is the quickest route to being broke. Shrewd investment of time, resources, and expertise is the only way to succeed long-term.
Act like a bootstrapped startup, and you'll never be wanting for cash. Apple and Google both know this - they have money to burn, but they build up large cash reserves. This is smart.
Spending everything in the hopes of netting a couple of smarties is like paying for a superbowl ad to sell your couch.
According to Alexa...
Let me stop you right there. Alexa is as reliable for webstats as Valleywag is reliable for fact verification.
Granted, Facebook has outclassed in terms of attention and traffic every other social network out there. When you're in the number one slot, you're not looking out for number two, you're looking out for numbers two through two million.
In other words, Facebook is competing with the rest of the web.