Facebook

I see there's a group called "We will not pay for Facebook." This is a perfectly reasonable statement with any easy solution- don't use Facebook and you'll never have to pay for it.

I spent a lot of years in the cable TV business and we used to get shrieks of horror every time we raised our rates, and I'd always think, well if you don't want to pay, then don't buy the service. Nobody's forcing you to watch TV. I don't like having to pay for potato chips and I especially hate it when they raise the price of potato chips. I think potato chips are the best food ever, but I don't need them, and nobody needs TV either.

I think a lot of people think they need Facebook, because it's the only way to stay connected to their friends. So then I guess the problem is that they don't want to pay for something they need, especially because it's been free. This resentment is particularly acute because the most avid users are adolescents who really aren't used to paying for things in general. No offence, kids, but tough noogies. Welcome to the real world. I don't like paying for gas and water and electricity, and at least water used to be free. But I feel like I need those things and so I pay. And telephone? The best comment on that was by Ernestine, the obnoxious telephone operator played by Lily Tomlin, who said, "If you don't like the phone company, try using 2 dixie cups and a string."

I've followed online business models from before the World Wide Web was invented way back in 1993, and Facebook, like many other online businesses that don't sell something, has been trying from day one to figure out how to make money. Many of those business no longer exist. Investors will pay for future profits for a while, especially when something gets huge really fast like this did, but in the long run, if nobody will pay for Facebook, it will disappear.