$1 Billion in profit => $1/(user year) in profit for 2011, correct?
That's pretty darn good money, but not a huge amount more room for user-growth. They'll grow by having new businesses/making current ones more profitable. New business would have to be monetizable (eventually, at least), current businesses would either have to convert better or become less costly to run.
Facebook is full of some smart cookies - it'll be interesting to see how they accomplish those paths.
I was thinking the same thing. Considering they have ~42% of all users (assuming the billion internet user estimate) there is only so much growth available from relying on their current model of acquiring users and serving ads to them.
I would imagine a next logical step would be to expand its ad network beyond facebook (i.e. serve facebook ads outside of facebook itself), it would allow for a significant jump in growth potential while staying close to their core competency.
That's pretty darn good money, but not a huge amount more room for user-growth. They'll grow by having new businesses/making current ones more profitable. New business would have to be monetizable (eventually, at least), current businesses would either have to convert better or become less costly to run.
Facebook is full of some smart cookies - it'll be interesting to see how they accomplish those paths.