Facebook kept spending through the 2008 recession and turned its first profit in 2009

Facebook entered the 2008 crisis as a fast-growing but loss-making network: 2008 revenue was $272 million and it lost $56 million. Advertising budgets were collapsing across the economy, and many startups responded with layoffs.

Zuckerberg instead kept investing in growth, adding users, product and international reach. In September 2009 he announced the site had passed 300 million users and had become profitable ahead of its own end-of-2010 goal.

The S-1 filed in 2012 showed the outcome: 2009 revenue hit $777 million with $229 million of net income, up from a $56 million loss in 2008, and 2010 revenue nearly tripled to $1.97 billion.

Revenue rose from $272M in 2008 to $777M in 2009 and $1.97B in 2010; 2009 brought the first net profit ($229M), and users passed 300 million by September 2009.

The product had network effects, so each new user made the service more valuable; cutting growth to save cash would have forfeited the lead.

Advertising revenue, $764 million of the 2009 total, monetized a base that grew 50 million users in two months in mid-2009.

Profitability came from scale rather than price: the user base passed 300 million with 70% of users outside the US.

In a downturn, cutting costs is not the only move: a business with a growing user base can keep spending on hiring and product, and emerge with a lead rivals cannot close.

The bet compounded: 2010 revenue reached $1.97 billion and net income $606 million, and 2011 revenue grew to $3.71 billion. Facebook filed for its IPO in 2012, and the recession-era investment had turned it into the dominant social platform.