How can on of the most heavily trafficked site on the web not make a profit?

[Captin Tron]

People are starting to say that because of a messy IPO, Facebook will not turn a profit and will hence go bankrupt. Is it me, or is this a silly theory?

[PoohBearPenguin]

No Facebook won't go bankrupt. Other companies have had bad IPOs and have managed to go on to become successful. Look at Amazon for instance.

Anyways, the big question with Facebook has always been what's the business plan? It's one thing to have the vision to create something great but quite another to turn a vision into a profitable business.

So how does Facebook intend to make money? From ads? That didn't work in the 90s. What makes Facebook think it can do it now? And how do you prevent the inevitable fallout when Facebook becomes more about the advertising than about the content and services it currently provides?

How does Facebook intend to fend off competitors it knows about, like Google+? And what about the unknown start-up? Facebook started in a dorm room, taking out the then champion of social media, Myspace. What's to prevent someone from essentially doing the same thing to Facebook?