"How could you say that, Facebook is about to go public!"
Well, 46% of Americans over 18 years of age believe Facebook will fall by the wayside as a passing fad. 43% of those interviewed think Facebook is in for the long haul. It may be surprising, as popular as Facebook is (901 Million users), that there are more people in the USA that think it will dissolve than stick around.
Facebook is set for their IPO on Friday with a share price of $34-$38 which has people talking about the social network and its long term future.
The 46% that believe Facebook to soon be a thing of the past has some strong points. Facebook has hundreds of competitors in social connectivity and it seems the next best thing in social networking is coming out daily. All of these new platforms can eventually steal Facebook's thunder just as Facebook had done to MySpace. Pinterest is one platform that has a lot of momentum being one of the fastest growing social networks ever. Many are also worried about the upcoming IPO because they are not sure Mark Zuckerberg is capable of running a gigantic public company. As a public company, Facebook could potentially become so profit focused that they forget to make their platform innovative and exciting for the users. The user is not the customer, the advertiser is, so if Facebook puts their users on the back burner it may cause the users to migrate to other platforms that are willing to pay more attention to them.
Of the 43% that believe in the long term success of Facebook, many argue that Facebook is the complete network. Facebook is the true hub of social networking. For instance, what Twitter does and what Pinterest does, Facebook has all in one place. Facebook users can create short status updates in real-time like Twitter and they can also upload, share, and comment on pictures like Pinterest does. Evidence of Facebook's continued success comes from the plethora of companies around the world that have targeted their company's presence and applications towards Facebook. So many firms have allowed their customers to log in via Facebook. This integration alone will keep Facebook around for a long time.
Only time will tell if Facebook can become a staple among the world's top firms. Becoming public will have Facebook under a magnified glass at all times so there is little room for error especially for their shareholders who want fatter wallets.