This paper takes a social constructionist approach to understanding the difficulties Facebook has encountered in its attempt to substantially increase the revenues per user on its highly visited site.Based on an extensive analysis of the trade press along with interviews of industry figures,the paper traces the way Facebook’s executives presented themselves to marketers from the site’s inception through today.Facebook followed what has become a standard business model:play up the social value of the site by attaching it to values of community and assurances about control over the meaning and reach of social activities.At the same time,de‐emphasize or disallow advertising.The aim is to build up scale(i.e.draw in large numbers of people) while spending venture‐capital money to keep the service free.Then use the resulting large population to open the spigot of ads and bring in loads of revenue.