[williamcotton]

I agree that it is a utility. However unlike water or electricity, Facebook is free service subsidized by advertisements. That's a pretty horrible business model because they have to extract value from their users by reducing their privacy, controlling their information and identity, and cluttering their communication channels with noise.

[Joeboy]

> That's a pretty horrible business model

It hasn't has yet proved to be an unsuccessful business model though.

[williamcotton]

Because their main costs are detached from their main revenue streams they have no way to accurately price how much a user costs them and how much value they provide. That's what makes it a horrible business model. How do you optimize what you can't accurately measure?