I dig reading Nick O’Neill’s stuff on All Facebook.  His blog great resource to stay on top of what’s happening in this growing digital global country of 225+ million users  (I say plus because by the time the numbers are published, Facebook has on-boarded even more users).

In one of today’s posts, Nick draws some comparison between Facebook and the once popular Friendster – a network that died on the vine a few years back during the emergence of MySpace.

Here’s an excerpt:

The phrase “social network” has been tainted with failure and Mark Zuckerberg wants no part of that. Instead they prefer to call Facebook a “social utility”. The hope is that Facebook can continue to experience growth for years to come. With Facebook surpassing 225 million and on track to surpass 300 million this year, one has to wonder when Facebook’s reign will come to an end. Even more important than ongoing user growth is continued revenue growth.

This is an interesting thought.  What elements create longevity in a social network (or “social utility” – sorry Mark) and moreover, how does that longevity lead to revenue?  Facebook undoubtedly has a stronghold on the social networking world right now. For instance, everywhere I go, my friends (the real life kind) are rehashing or continuing the dialog that has taken place at some point on Facebook.  Deep levels of adoption have been widespread.  As an example, can you even remember last time you received an email invitation to one of your friend’s birthday parties or local bar concerts or even a summer picnic?

Zukenberg made a smart move in building and seeding a social community from the ground upon the premise geo-targeting.  By this, I mean that he focused on providing a platform where existing networks of friends who already had strong relationships and lived in proximity could connect easily to each other.

This was not unintentional.  Let’s remember that Facebook BETA started in high-schools and colleges where students (who happened to be socializing all day long anyway) needed a .edu email address to even create a profile. It wasn’t until early 2005 that the platform opened it’s doors to everyone else.

Now take a look back to the  September 2008 FastCompany cover story on the battle for market share between MySpace and Facebook, where Facebook is described as  “a social utility that connects you with the people around you”.  Zukerbergs mission is pretty clear – connect people with other people they already know.  This is ironically similar to LinkedIn’s charter.  Watch the video on this page.

Seeding user networks at the local level is a critical element in Facebook’s amazing worldwide adoption rates.   We’ve even seen an influx of baby boomers embrace the utility, some of which for the sole reason of connecting with long lost classmates – again, a network of friends who were at one time tied together by proximity.  Networks of existing friends with deep relationships have now adopted the utility as a practical communication tool and not just some digital  global game board.

Throw Facebook Connect into the mix, giving marketers and non-profits, performers, and many other groups the ability to easily integrate their existing communities with other web destinations and you have a true game changer. Another excerpt:

The company is expected to post more than 100 percent revenue growth this year according to numbers that have been floating around over the past few days. It will be important to continue that trend. Some of that growth may come from displaying ads on Facebook Connect sites as he told Reuters.

My opinion?  This prediction could be on the mark and the BIG revenue may be coming soon.

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