MONTREAL - While 900 million people have discovered the joys of rediscovering long-lost friends, leering in on strangers' photos and commenting on people's wacky one liners, many still doubt that Facebook will be a long-term moneymaker.
Those doubters, however, do not apparently include the investment community, which bid the social network giant up in early trading Friday upon its initial public offering Friday.
Montreal tech expert Elias Makos acknowledges that the ad revenue model now employed by Facebook still retains a few hitches but points out that the sheer masses of people spending time daily on the site ensure make it a pretty safe bet.
Makos describes General Motors' recent yanking of a $10 million advertising contract as "a drop in the bucket," in the larger scheme of things.
And while about half of Canadians recently surveyed believe that Facebook is a passing fad, Makos is of another opinion.
"People who say it's a passing fad haven't been looking at the past eight years. It's pervasive everywhere on the internet, just about every site has a Facebook share and like button," said Makos.
"Go to Google Plus. It's a ghost town. It's hard to say that Facebook is a fad, when there's 900 million people there and nine of your 10 friends are on it."
Click on the videoplayer to the right to hear see the full interview.
