Andy217 - 1:41 am on Jan 4, 2008 (gmt 0)

Following up on what Menial just said, here's a real-life example:

Classmates.com was going to launch an IPO last month, but the parent company pulled the plug. From the article I was reading:

"In addition, some analysts expressed doubts about Classmates' ability to sustain paid subscription growth, while rivals such as Facebook and News Corp.'s MySpace.com offer their services for free.

In SEC filings, Classmates also disclosed that its automatic subscription renewal policy is under a Federal Trade Commission probe."

So if paid subscriptions aren't the answer, then SNS really don't have a choice and must continue to rely upon advertising?