Facebook is today celebrating it fifth birthday, but the more
hard nosed may be asking where the money is.
The social networking site now has 150 million users worldwide,
but is still struggling to fully monetise its business.
Annual advertising revenues are still only about £150m - a pound
per subscriber - and users continue to resist commercial ventures
on the site which create clunkiness for their personal content.
Last week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg suggested at the
Davos meeting of world governmental and business leaders that
Facebook could allow marketers to use its subscriber database.
That would be another move to cause outcry among subscribers, as
well as privacy campaigners.
On reaching the fifth year in business milestone - internet
years are seen as a lot longer than real years - Zuckerberg
said,
"The culture of the internet has changed pretty dramatically over
the past five years.
"Before, most people would not consider sharing their real
identities online. But Facebook has offered a safe and trusted
environment for people to interact online, which has made millions
of people comfortable expressing more about themselves."