Facebook - facing up to a long future?

With a $100bn IPO on the cards, is facebook a fad or will it be around for a long time to come?

BARRY KING SAYS...

There will be something else soon

Growing up I followed some trends and snubbed others. I didn’t rush out to buy a ZX Spectrum, but then I did jump on the Commodore Amiga. I ate Push Pops and wore Puma King football boots. But where are all those things now? They were gadgets, gizmos, fads. Just like facebook.

You see, most things have a shelf life. Facebook is to set to be valued at $100 billion on the stock market tomorrow and everybody wants a piece. Everybody but me and University of Florida finance professor Jay Ritter that is. “The time to buy facebook was five years ago,” he said this week. And I agree. I’ve just never really ‘got’ facebook. I joined to see what the fuss was about, but I still don’t see it. I risk being the victim of a facebook dumping - but do I really need to know that Dave, who I last spoke to 16 years ago at school, is off on holiday? The local burglars will be interested.

FB is a great way to keep in touch, but the main people I’m in contact with overseas – mum, dad and my sister - don’t do FB. And I’d prefer to speak to my wife than facebook her. People, probably including Mr Zuckerberg, are working to better facebook and, while it won’t die out, in five years your stock could be worth the same as a ZX Spectrum. And nobody’s going to like that.

DUNCAN HARE SAYS...

Facebook's a keeper

I won’t lie, facebook doesn’t get a ‘Like’ from me. In fact, it very much gets a thumbs-down. I see so many people - I’m thinking of you sis - wasting their lives on the thing, posting nonsensical garbage when they could be doing something so much better with their time. But a fad? No chance. Answer me this, do you know anyone who isn’t on facebook? Thought not. To not have a facebook account in this day and age risks social pariah status. Almost as if you’ve got something to hide from the world - rather than share it with everyone else.

The growth of facebook has been nothing short of phenomenal. Dreamed up by some hoodie-clad, geeky kid in a messy college bedroom in just 2004, it now claims 900 million users across the world. And here’s the crux of the matter. It has no competition. Zilch. People talk about social networking sites. Plural. Really?

Give me another one. Give me one with anywhere near the same reach and popularity as facebook? Twitter, I here you mutter? Around 200 million users worldwide but still just serves a niche audience. Facebook’s not a fad because it has become an utterly integral part of our everyday lives.

Just like my darling sister stuck in her bedroom with laptop propped up on her knees, it ain’t going anywhere.