With Facebook celebrating its 500 millionth user (that’s half a billion!) today, what does the future hold for the internet.  Google are no doubt a little nervous about the rise of facebook and its unprecedented growth.  500 million users in just 6 years! and more than 80% of those in the last 2 years.  How long before Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) is celebrating 1 million users? I would be willing to bet it won’t be another 6 years!

How can Facebook become the next internet super power? I guess they need to monetise as it’s a free to use service and reports show that only in the last 12 months has Facebook as a business broken even.  It is currently generating revenue through advertising, but as Google has demonstrated, the internet is a potential gold mine and Facebook has every chance of success.  Google was not the first search engine, but it nailed the market, Facebook was not the first social networking site, but it nailed the market, now if it can follow in the footsteps of Google, Mark Zuckerberg, just 26 is set to be a very young millionaire!

So what do I make of Facebook, sure I use it, but I use it as a supplement to my social interaction, not as many seem use it as a primary form of social interaction.  For me, I like to meet my friends in person and have a catch up over a pint, that said, I cannot criticise if for putting people back in touch when easily drifting apart.  I played golf with an old school friend I had not seen in 10 years as he moved to Scotland, but he was visiting my home town, dropped me a note on Facebook and we met up for a round and a beer.  So in those circumstances it was great.

I think I am right in saying that Lady Gaga recently became the first person to have over 10 million likes to her Facebook page! 10 Million….that’s one in every 50 users on Facebook are fans of Lady Gaga? What does that say about the demographic of facebook users? Suddenly I feel old.

Phil