The Breathtaking Scope of Facebook

750 million people around the world have Facebook accounts.  Maybe 20 percent of them use the service pretty heavily.  The result is a social destination unlike any other ever invented.  I interact daily with friends from England, Belgium, and Australia.  I have connected with people who I barely knew in high school.  These days, we share tons of things in common. Millions of Facebook users have had experiences like this.

The business of Facebook has prospered as a result.  This week, Facebook is holding its developer's conference called f8.  SNL Comic, Andy Sandberg, kicked things off with a dead on Mark Zuckerberg imitation, except that he was saying and doing some very un-Zuck things.  It was quite funny.

Facebook's list of new features was quite outstanding, too, including a Timeline feature that allows you to map out your entire life in one Facebook page.  Then there are the partnerships:

• Facebook will enable Netflix streaming everywhere except in the US.  
• New games from social games developers are showing up a record pace. Zynga, which makes Farmville, Cityville, and several other hit titles, expects to go public - if economic conditions permit - largely due to the success of its Facebook games.  Note that Facebook takes a 30 percent cut on Zynga's Facebook revenues.  
• Facebook has linked up with Spotify - the hit music streaming service that just crossed the pond from the UK - and many others, including IMDb, Blockbuster, DirecTV, Hulu, Flixter - all partnering with Facebook to make money jointly.

Most importantly, from a business perspective, Facebook is hitting the ball out the park.

• CNet is reporting that Facebook revenues are projected to reach $4.27 billion this year - over double 2010 revenues.  Online credits - basically virtual currency - are expected to generate $470 million in real currency this year.  Amazing.
• Industry analysts believe that Facebook is now the runaway leader in display advertising with close to a 20 percent market share. Have you ever noticed how targeted those Facebook ads are on the right?  Creepy, huh?  It's all about your Likes.  The previous leader, Yahoo!, has felt the pinch - hence the departure of controversial CEO, Carol Bartz.
• fCommerce is now a tracked category of eCommerce and is growing faster than any other category.  Whole companies have been formed or repurposed just to exploit fCommerce.

Facebook is also bold when it comes to its service - having updated their user interface radically several times in the last 24 months.  The latest version came out a couple of days ago and has a lot users pining away for the old look-and-feel.  Users will get used it.  New products from Facebook and others will be fed into it.

As we all connect with friends, post links, and insert status updates, Facebook will be monetizing us as people.  We all want to feel like we're customers of Facebook.  We're not.  We're the product - sold to advertisers and product developers worldwide.  it all seems to work.  We just shouldn't assume that all these changes to the Facebook platform and business model are all about us.