kidmercury

Facebook announced it is cash flow positive.

Meetup has its first profitable month.

Assuming these stories are true, (and I'm willing to believe they are), is it a big deal?

I kinda think so. For starters, I view this as another sign towards how Internet communities change the world. That vision won't come true without massive profits, so this is a nice sign in that regard.

However, we are still in an economic crisis, where false forms of value are being extinguished (unless they can start another bubble, but I doubt it). And so, for these companies to really survive, I would like to see a high current ratio and 20%+ operating margins. I would imagine both Facebook and Meetup can get there if they are not there already.

On a more disturbing note, this does cause me to question my vision of the web a bit more, as I did not think Facebook could do it without finding a way to monetize outside of Facebook.com. I am still a bit skeptical of Meetup because I don't think it is engaging enough, but you can't argue with results.

So perhaps we will see the big "catch all" types of communities prosper, and perhaps we will see the "roll your own community" services prosper as well. Still, though, I believe the marketing ingredient is getting the key influencers. MySpace got the musicians. Facebook got the college kids. Meetup got the 9/11 truthers (seriously! there are tons of 9/11 truth groups on Meetup).

Overall I'm taking this as a good sign for my "niche communities will change the world and make a lot of money" thesis, although I would like to see more confirmation of my thesis that "influencers are how to build niche communities" as well as my other thesis that "bloggers/celebrities/musicians/filmmakers will be the key influencers."