before the IPO I'd have said that if Amazon can stay in business for 17 years on minuscule earnings, I suspect Facebook can too. All it has to do is stay relevant and popular and investors will stick with it due to it's 'long term potential', in Amazon's case apparently for ever.
The problem for Facebook is their IPO was a mess for investors, so they're perceived as being lot less shiny than they were. But still, once you reach the point of ubiquitous name recognition that gives you a lot of protection.
E.g. apparently Bing is just as good as Google these days. I wouldn't know, I just use Google. For me to change they'd have to be very clearly superior, and for ordinary people to switch they'd have to be even better than that. All Facebook has to do at this stage is to stay at least as useful and relevant as they are now, and they will retain a mass audience. If they keep the audience they'll keep the investors. Making money isn't sexy, it's market share and that pot of gold just round the corner that pulls investors in.
"E.g. apparently Bing is just as good as Google these days."
Well, when one of your "1000 ranking signals" amounts to "clicks on Google's search results", I would hope so. Of course, this just means they'll always be equal to Google - epsilon, even if Google's quality gets worse, and so like you say there will never be a compelling reason to switch.
The problem for Facebook is their IPO was a mess for investors, so they're perceived as being lot less shiny than they were. But still, once you reach the point of ubiquitous name recognition that gives you a lot of protection.
E.g. apparently Bing is just as good as Google these days. I wouldn't know, I just use Google. For me to change they'd have to be very clearly superior, and for ordinary people to switch they'd have to be even better than that. All Facebook has to do at this stage is to stay at least as useful and relevant as they are now, and they will retain a mass audience. If they keep the audience they'll keep the investors. Making money isn't sexy, it's market share and that pot of gold just round the corner that pulls investors in.