[Techtaffy Newsdesk]

Finally, as some of you may be saying. Social networking behemoth Facebook has filed for its much debated and more anticipated IPO. The offering could value the company north of $75 billion; the actual figure could be as high as $100 billion. What is Facebook’s ticker going to be? “FB” says the company in its S-1 filing with the SEC.

The SEC filing also reveals Facebook’s financial numbers, ending several months of speculation on the company’s revenue figures. But before we get to that tantalizing piece of information, here are some more numbers to whet your appetite.

• Facebook had 845 million monthly active users (MAUs) as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 39 per cent as compared to 608 million MAUs as of December 31, 2010.
• Facebook had 483 million daily active users (DAUs) on average in December 2011, an increase of 48 per cent as compared to 327 million DAUs in December 2010.
• We had more than 425 million MAUs who used Facebook mobile products in December 2011.
• There were more than 100 billion friend connections on Facebook as of December 31, 2011.
• Facebook users generated an average of 2.7 billion Likes and Comments per day during the three months ended December 31, 2011.

Now for the revenue numbers. Facebook said it had $3.71 billion in revenues in 2011, $1.74 billion more than the year before (Facebook had $1.97 billion in revenues in 2010). The numbers though pretty high fell short of street expectations, where Facebook’s revenues were being pegged in the range of $4 billion and up. Facebook’s annual revenue grew 154 per cent from 2009 to 2010 and 88 per cent from 2010 to 2011.

The substantial majority of Facebook’s revenues is currently generated from third parties advertising on the social networking site. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, advertising accounted for 98 per cent, 95 per cent, and 85 per cent, respectively, of Facebook’s revenues.

In 2011, Zynga accounted for approximately 12 per cent of Facebook’s revenues. The revenues were derived from payments processing fees related to Zynga’s sales of virtual goods and from direct advertising purchased by Zynga.

Do you know?

• Facebook’s mission, now made official, is to make the world more open and connected.
• Facebook says it believes that the Web, including the mobile Web, is evolving to become more social and personalized.
• You may have to pay for apps in future says Facebook (currently Facebook requires payment integration only on games).
• Facebook is devoting substantial resources to developing engaging mobile products and experiences for a wide range of platforms, including smartphones and feature phones.
• Access to Facebook has been or is currently restricted in whole or in part in China, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
• In 2011, Facebook began serving products from data centers owned by Facebook using servers specifically designed for Facebook. The company plans to continue to significantly expand the size of its infrastructure, primarily through data centers that it is designing and owns.
• Facebook plans to continue to expand internationally and keep foraying into new languages. Facebook is available in more than 70 different languages now, and the company currently has offices or data centers in more than 20 different countries.
• Facebook is in the market for acquisitions.
• Facebook has never declared or paid cash dividends on its capital stock. The company will not be paying dividends in the near future either.