Will Social Networks On the Web Ever Make Money?

Well perhaps this blog might!

Interesting article from Forbes, about the ability (or not) of Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter etc to turn their fast number of users into cash generators.

In the last week or so, there have been a number of events that bring up the big question: Will Web-based social networks ever become significant businesses? Or, put another way: Do these social networks--Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace--have the ability to "monetize" their audiences?

My answer: While today, these may not look like great businesses (which hasn't stopped investors' willingness to fund them), I'm convinced that the daily interactions of their vast memberships--and their users' willingness to share their interests, tastes, relationships and intentions, and the massive amounts of data around users' behavior--will eventually lead to substantial revenues and profits. But I don't think that those revenues will come just from the Web advertising standards of banners and contextual search links.