By James Murray, Talia Blewitt and AP
Facebook is updating its status from a private to public company.
The shift is occurring as the Internet social network filed its long-awaited plans for an initial public offering of stock.
The documents filed Wednesday say Facebook hopes to raise $5 billion in its IPO. That would be the most for an Internet IPO since Google and its early backers raised $1.9 billion in 2004.
The final amount is likely to change during the next three to four months as Facebook's bankers gauge investor demand.
The new company listing today means founder Mark Zuckerberg will make big money. Website ReadWriteWeb says it is also the day where "you stop being a Facebook user and become a Facebook customer".
So far today's developments have revealed some interesting information about the world's biggest social media website.
This is Facebook's revenue growth over the past five years:
- 2008 - $153m
- 2009 - $272m
- 2010 - $777m
- 2010 - $1,974m
- 2011 - $3,711m
If you look at their net income over the past five years you can see how rapidly they went from making a loss into making huge profits:
- 2007 - $ -138m
- 2008 - $ -56m
- 2009 - $ 229m
- 2010 - $ 606m
- 2011 - $ 1,000m
The IPO marks another major milestone for a Harvard-born startup that began as an online college hangout eight years ago.
The large increases in profit are mainly down to increased advertising revenue. Revenue in 2011 increased by 88 percent compared to 2010. This was primarily down to a 69 percent increase in advertising revenue - going up to $3,154 million.
Media partnerships and games have been very fruitful for Facebook with 12 percent of 2011 revenue coming from the company that makes popular game Farmville, Zynga.
As of December 31, 2011 Facebook has 845 million active members, which is an increase of 39 percent over the past year.
Mark Zuckerberg's salary is listed as being $500,000, but he also received perks worth $692,679 (private aircraft) and $90,850 for estate and financial planning.
He owns 28.2 percent of the pre IPO share capital, other major share owners include Accel Partners, US Venture Capital - 11.4 percent, DST Global, Russian venture capital - 5.5 percent and Dustin Moskovitz - 7.6 percent.
Financial analysts are estimating the personal worth of Mark Zuckerberg to be around $28.4 billion.
With the float comes a statement of intent from Facebook, described as 'A letter from Mark Zuckerberg'.
The letter outlines the company's social mission and talks about the Hacker Way - which Zuckerberg describes as "building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done".
Since its launch, it has become a cultural touchstone that has transformed the way everyone from doting grandmas to sassy teenagers share information about their lives.
The amount of Facebook users will no longer be a mark of success, rather its share price and how well it's ranking with Wall Street.
3 News & AP