What the author of the article fails to understand is nothing lasts forever on the internet.
Facebook can become insignificant 1 year from now just because a new service propose better features at a lower price, or just because people get bored...
People used to have email accounts at yahoo , yet , people now prefer gmail because it is easier to use and is less "spammy".
People used to have myspace accounts , and guess what, moved to facebook...
But it's also true that nothing's free on the internet. Twitter is not free , neither is facebook , and as a business they need to generate revenue.
You've missed a couple of points
1. The possibility that Facebook is 'insignificant' one year from now is astronomical. People use Facebook for so many things in their lives including staying in touch, single sign on, games, etc. Even if it somehow cut in half it's still 500m users vs the 3.5m of Myspace
2. The 3000 dollar fee is a fee to reach X number of users now, not one year for now. So if he pays the 3000 now, even if Facebook goes under, it wasn't a loss.
Facebook can become insignificant 1 year from now just because a new service propose better features at a lower price, or just because people get bored...
People used to have email accounts at yahoo , yet , people now prefer gmail because it is easier to use and is less "spammy".
People used to have myspace accounts , and guess what, moved to facebook...
But it's also true that nothing's free on the internet. Twitter is not free , neither is facebook , and as a business they need to generate revenue.