How does Facebook make money?

[Amelia]

Facebook is free for its users, so I thought they make money through the ads. But now I realise one can post ads for free as well. What is generating the revenue then?
Why would anyone donate any money to Facebook?
Re: compmama's comment:

"They buy info such as email address, phone numbers, and seek out users' info based on things such as age"

Phone number? Really? Omg...

[Andrew]

facebook claims to be non profit.. but they do have little things in there that you can pay like a dollar for and send to someone.. icons and such.. all i know is that they turned down a 1 billion dollar deal with yahoo to be bought.. so they must be making some good money some how..

[Aspie H]

Advertising for most media conglomerates is not free.

[DEMOCRAT]

1. Big ad sponsors (only individual ads are free)
2. Sponsors for featuring them
3. Donations by celebrities
4. Donations by big companies.

[Sam B]

don't think too much into it kid.

[Triumphant]

Targeted advertising. There is a shopping site on Facebook. And also they encourage you to send gifts to your friends. There is something called beacon which keeps track of all the shopping you do and they sell this information to advertisers. Therefore after you've been on Facebook for a few weeks you will notice the pop up ads are exactly the things you are interested in.

[compmama]

They make $$ through advertisers and selling your info to various companies. I know bc company I work at signed a deal with them last year. They buy info such as email address, phone numbers, and seek out users' info based on things such as age, appllications, demographics, preferences , etc. I don't think people really read the contract and realize they are handing over personal information to god knows how many sources.