I am torn on this subject. Early in the life of Facebook I was a pretty heavy user, but my use has dropped off significantly over the course of this year. I hardly ever check Facebook anymore. Although the real questions are if if the masses will use Facebook long term and is there additional value beyond the social platform?

That being said, I think the real value in Facebook is the massive troves of data they have on their servers. This data can be used for improving Facebook, repackaged and sold to others, or used in a previously unconsidered manner. There is a book I recently read that provides some great insights into the value of this type of data called Big Data:

http://www.amazon.com/Big-Data-Revolutio...

Big Data is an excellent read and will likely change your thinking on these types of companies, or at least give you other points to consider.

As for Facebook, I really don't know. I'm skeptical of the long term value of Facebook as a social platform, but the data likely has tremendous value, it just depends on how they use it.

In my opinion a social company with enduring value is LinkedIn. Their co-founder, Reid Hoffman is brilliant and his material that he publishes on blogs and LinkedIn is always insightful. That company is striving to be more than a mere social platform and is looking to integrate themselves into the economy and move GDP. Their insights into networks and network effects are amazing. The real question with LinkedIn is that if the company culture and ambition will endure beyond the founders? At present the answer looks to be yes and he appears to continue to stay very involved as Executive Chairman and uses the platform himself.