Even at $1/year - their 1.5 billion active users should be an equal amount of revenue. I'd say that's enough to cover the cost of servers and bandwidth.
But that is it. If all you want is basic messaging then you are probably right.
However, if you are trying to build a messaging platform, which is what probably FB intends to do, then it requires more investment. Today, you might think that that is where the problem. All the users really want is basic messaging. However, in 3-5yrs from today, the reality may be very different (see WeChat or LINE in APAC) and WhatsApp maybe a complete misfit in that world.
All good products evolve. For something like messaging, if all you provide is a basic product, then you risk yourself being taken over by default platform apps (such as what happened with iMessage on iOS in US). You need stronger lockins and FB is well suited to provide those.
However, if you are trying to build a messaging platform, which is what probably FB intends to do, then it requires more investment. Today, you might think that that is where the problem. All the users really want is basic messaging. However, in 3-5yrs from today, the reality may be very different (see WeChat or LINE in APAC) and WhatsApp maybe a complete misfit in that world.
All good products evolve. For something like messaging, if all you provide is a basic product, then you risk yourself being taken over by default platform apps (such as what happened with iMessage on iOS in US). You need stronger lockins and FB is well suited to provide those.