[renaudg]

Not a chance. You want people to pay for that ? Even free alternative social networks like Diaspora or Ello failed to gain any traction. The network effects are just too strong.

The next wave that will eventually unseat Facebook (the product) will have to be something entirely different. And it might even come from Facebook (the company).

[macintux]

Agreed. app.net was such an attempt to offer a paid alternative to Twitter, and that went exactly nowhere.

[Chathamization]

I'm not sure it has to be entirely different. It could gain traction if it was better, and if it initially attracted the attention of a specific userbase (which would counteract the network effect).