Agreed on all accounts. I think most facebook users think of it as essential enough to pay something as high as $2-10 per month to use it or some set of premiu

Agreed on all accounts. I think most facebook users think of it as essential enough to pay something as high as $2-10 per month to use it or some set of premium services. That's a good $100M at least monthly. Of course, making the transition from a 100% free site to a very cheap one is a bit tricky, but learning how to do that is a lesson that the industry as a whole can use and will probably have to do at some point. The product acquires value to users as they use it. Giving it away for free at the beginning and as long as possible while it is manageable to do so is fine and advisable. However, in the long run there is nothing wrong or overly difficult in charging your users a little bit. 37signals is a good example of something similar to this.