When you have over "65 billion page views per month", you don't need to focus on more users.

You need to focus on getting paid. Fast.

EDIT: In other words:

if Money In - Money Out > 0: Success

if Money In - Money Out < 0: Fail

The number of users doesn't matter.

Why does Facebook need to focus on "getting paid. Fast."? It's not like they have any difficulty getting funding. Obviously they need to figure out how to make money in the long run, but it's not like they're going to run out of cash any time soon.

I get your point, but given the current economic climate and the understanding that the you can't predict when "the cat'll be out of the bag" in terms of when the valley realizes they're living on funding, the faster they find a way to bring in revenue, the better it is for them.

They'll have difficulty getting funding at some point in the future without a down round, which nobody wants.

They're profitable, though. So if they wanted, they could avoid taking any more funding, ever, and just grow the company off retained earnings.

Profitable, but nowhere near profitable enough to justify the enormous investment they've taken and their valuation.

Good point!

What exactly are facebook users consuming?

And volume is no substitute for probability if every "consumption" is at a loss. Sony can sell the PS3 at a loss because it makes money on the games and in the long run, wins. They can't sell the PS3 at a loss and sell the games at a loss, and make up for it with volume.

That's what facebook seems to be attempting. And they're not even winning the volume game.

Should have read, "volume is no substitute for profitability".