Well in the case of a Ponzi scheme everyone thinks there's profits being reaped. It's possible that investors just think that one day Facebook will figure out h

Well in the case of a Ponzi scheme everyone thinks there's profits being reaped. It's possible that investors just think that one day Facebook will figure out how to make money from their massive install-base, and then the cash will flow like crazy. Or alternatively, their costs for hosting and bandwidth will fall massively over time (the central combo is pictures + text messages), increasing profit margins. I could imagine Facebook doing a lot. For instance some sort of premium dating service whereby they match you with other people who like the same things (they have all the data already), and then you see their pic, and then if you both accept you view each others' pages to learn more about the person and build trust (also Facebook can censor/randomize real names and addresses at this stage to make it more safe), then you add each other as friends, and from there possibly start dating. They key thing is that people are comfortable with Facebook, but most people are probably UNcomfortable with online dating. What they need is it to be seamlessly merged into their life, so that there's no 'putting yourself out there,' no stigma, and minimum possibility of a poor match. Or what about setting up a rival to Paypal. Anyone else trying that needs to start from scratch, Facebook already has the users, and to some extent the trust. Plus they don't need to rely on email and deal with all the scams that PayPal had to fend off. At the moment FB are a bit suspicious in terms of profit but there's still lots of potential for the future.