I really don't believe that Facebook is going to close its gates. There are too many people who use it constantly and will keep on using it. I myself log in almost every day to check my messages and news feed. I wouldn't say I'm addicted to Facebook (I hope not!) but I wouldn't want it to shut down. As I stated before, Facebook won't come to an end any time soon.
I think this is a very important point to consider. Facebook, as a company, isn't just Facebook the website anymore. They've been buying up other potential investments left and right. Facebook is a huge company, with a lot of fingers in a lot of pies.
I believe you are correct about Facebook as it pertains to Americans. However, world wide I think it will grow. I just discovered Facebook is only second to Google in terms of usage. Yahoo is third. I predicted seven years ago that Yahoo would go away. I was wrong. It only grew larger to become an enormous website throughout the world.
I second that, I also think that Yahoo is seen waaaay worse than it was 10 years back. Its decline happened most likely because the users wanted something new, something that could fit their needs. I was never a huge fan of Yahoo (the only thing I use from Yahoo is the email), but I'm not sure if Facebook's success is because Yahoo's decline.
On one hand I agree with you that Facebook has gained critical mass and is seen as a critical social medium. I do think that in the short term they will grow some because they are getting so more members as they gain more and more publicity and they are figuring out how to monetize their site better. However, because of how big they already are, I think their is not as much room for them to grow - certainly not the explosive growth they experienced a few years back and I think in the next few years maybe 5-10 another company will come along and replace them. I don't see them becoming a long term company that is still around and growing slowly 10-20 years from now.
That is a true fact, facebook is slowly fading away, it is not what it used to be,wierd things are happening, so people are shutting down ,so the future of facebook is kind of meek, unless there are changes that are made.
Facebook is definitely going to go down sooner or later, and I would never in my life consider putting my money in anything related to Facebook. Even though they are very wealthy at the moment, and they keep buying all these successful buisnesses (Oculus Rift, Instagram... etc) and making them even bigger, I do think they are going to come to an end sooner or later. Personally I don't use facebook too much, and I don't even like their services at all. And I'm not alone, I'm not the only one that isn't satisfied with their services, and if for example Google would make Google plus more attractive, I'm sure Facebook would be done for. And it's just a matter of time before somethign like that happens, trust me on that one.
The future of facebook is facebook. I think Oculus was a wise move to ensure their stock retains some sort of value when the next generation has no interest in being on a social site that their parents are on. But VR has stiff competition coming down the pipe, Sony, Valve, castAR and many other competitors will have amazing products within the next 3-5yrs. Oculus will be first and the most impressive VR gadget to hit the consumer market, but it might not be the king of VR.
Facebook isn't going anywhere anytime soon. It has already become a huge part of people's digital lives whether they like it or not. Plenty of people use Facebook and will continue to use it for years to come.
