While Facebook has been able to decrease its reliance on sponsored content (down from 98 percent of sales in 2009), the hopes of expanding the company’s e-commerce footprint also faces public resistance, the poll showed. A majority of participants (54 percent) said they wouldn’t feel safe using the platform for financial transactions such as purchasing goods or services; only 8 percent said they would feel extremely or very safe in doing so.

While Facebook currently has a limited market for real goods and services (most financial transactions are done for virtual goods and games), analysts cite e-commerce as an extremely lucrative, and untapped, market for the platform — one that could be vital for the company’s future growth.

The public also remains wary of Facebook’s valuation, widely bandied about as $100 billion, with just 3 percent of respondents saying they thought the company would be undervalued at such a number — half said they thought it would be overvalued (that view rises to 62 percent among active investors). Views are also split on whether or not shares of Facebook stock would make a good investment — with progressively less positive opinions for older age groups.

House and Senate Work Simultaneously to Create Budgets, a Rarity

Latest GOP Budget Is Ambitious, Unlikely to Pass

Can Partisanship Be Fixed?

Gridlock, Then and Now

ARRRGH! Entrepreneurs Vent About Obamacare Costs

More Imbalance of Power