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Facebook: The prince of social networking

Given how many friend requests I am getting on Facebook from people who I would expect to hear from on LinkedIn, it's clear that the number two social network, trailing the massive MySpace, is poised to become the prince of social networking. By that I mean the company 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg founded is becoming the preferred destination for the most attractive demographics--college age and beyond.
Written by Dan Farber, Inactive

Given how many friend requests I am getting on Facebook from people who I would expect to hear from on LinkedIn, it's clear that the number two social network, trailing the massive MySpace, is poised to become the prince of social networking. By that I mean the company 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg founded is becoming the preferred destination for the most attractive demographics--college age and beyond.

MySpace has built out its colony appealing to a younger demographic and the music crowd, but now many high schoolers are switching from MySpace to Facebook as their primary social space. On Thursday, Facebook will announce that it is opening up the platform to users and external parties to leverage the social network for recommendation and sharing services (see Steve O'Hear's post on what the WSJ reported).

Facebook is also poised to grow up as a company. The company has taken $38 million in funding since its founding in 2004, but is growing at a rapid clip--reportedly 100,000 new members per day. Zuckerberg and team have turned down billion dollar offers for the company, and seem more likely to take the IPO route unless Microsoft, Google, Amazon or Yahoo (which may be acquiring Facebook competitor Bebo for $1 billion) can make an offer that cannot be refused. The company will also likely bring in more adult supervision, such as a Web-seasoned CEO to focus the company on the revenue side, especially if the intent is to go public.

The Web is becoming more social, and Facebook is going to be one of the major colonies dominating the landscape.

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