It was interesting to read about the departure of Facebook CFO Gideon Yu, and what it might mean about what’s happening behind the scenes.

At a time when Facebook’s growth is unbridled – one million new users a week! – the company seems to be struggling with how to evolve the business. The hyper-growth is a great problem to have but it’s also an expensive proposition given the hiring involved and the infrastructure (servers, etc.) to support users. Facebook needs to keep making significant investments and raise more money so it can keep up with the growing number of subscribers.

The challenge and problem is revenue growth doesn’t seem to be keeping pace. Part of the Facebook’s trouble is that advertising isn’t resonating with users – or, at least, resonating with users as much as Facebook would like to drive more revenue.

It’s clear that many Facebook users aren’t at all interested in advertising in any way, shape or form. To them, Facebook has become their digital lifestyle hub where they communicate with friends, share photos, provide updates and find entertainment. To them, advertising doesn’t exist because it doesn’t interest them.

The challenge facing Facebook as well as companies looking to take advantage of Facebook’s 150 million users is coming up with out-of-the-box vehicles that appeal to users. It’s not going to be small boxes sitting within sidebars but something that is contextual, relevant and part of the overall experience.

The $64,000 question is what if Facebook can’t drive more revenue growth out of its large number of users? What happens if it becomes too expensive to support these users? Does Facebook scale back or try to control its control?

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