Facebook Sales 2012: Ads $5B!

We’ve been reporting quite often on the upcoming Facebook IPO and with Facebook sales for ads to top $5B this year according to market researchers, its no wonder that the IPO has been rumored to be set at a valuation at as high as $100B.

With Google following close behind, Facebook sales for ads are

still number one and its competition has been left in the

dust.

Facebook Sales | How It Fairs Out

Menlo Park, CA-based Facebook will still dominate this year, raking

in $2.6 billion to Google’s $2.5 billion in display ad revenues. Yet by end of next year, the Mountain

View, CA-based web and technology giant will hold a $3.7 billion to $3.3 billion lead over

Facebook for display ads, eMarketer says.

According to eMarketer, the top three portals trail both Google and

Facebook in ad revenue. Yahoo ($1.4 billion), Microsoft ($700

million), and AOL ($600 million) will finish 2012 behind the leaders in that order. The trio remains in

the same positions next year, according to eMarketer, but will

see incremental lifts in display ad revenues.

So it appears that even though Facebook sales are at the top this

year, next year Google will overtake them, at least according to reports. How close were the

researchers in predicting Facebook sales for last year?

Facebook’s recent S-1 filing revealed that eMarketer was $600 million off its earlier estimates for

Facebook’s 2011 ad sales ($3.2 billion). In its September

2011 calculation, the researcher said Facebook would draw $3.8

billion.

What’s $600 million anyways. That's pocket change, right folks? Whatever the case, Facebook is

racking in the big bucks with advertising. Their other form of

revenue? Game credits. Here’s a report we did earlier on Facebook

sales:

So just how much revenue does Facebook pull in on a year to year

basis and where exactly does it come from? We have ran across a

recent article from PC World on the Facebook IPO and just how much money they pull in from both advertising and gaming.

Facebook has been busy making money in recent years and growing fast. In 2009, the

company said it brought in $777 million in revenue. That figure

grew to $1.974 billion in 2010, and then almost doubled in 2011 when

the company had $3.71 billion in revenue and $1 billion in profit.

The S-1 filing also shows that digital cows, crops, and mafia hit jobs are a big source of revenue

for the company; social game maker Zynga was responsible for about 12 percent of Facebook’s

revenue in 2011.

Investors realize that Facebook sales are skyrocketing with no end

in sight that’s why this stock is already being traded like crazy and

its not even public!

Facebook Sales | Whats the Status of the IPO?

The shareholder base has grown to more than 1,000, compared

with the 50 to 100 investors most companies have when they go

public, according to an estimate by Sam Hamadeh, head of research

firm PrivCo.

Private purchases pushed Facebook’s valuation past $100

billion this month, possibly limiting immediate gains for IPO investors,

given that Facebook may seek a $75 billion to $100 billion value.

What do our readers think about Facebook sales? Do you think Facebook sales will overtake Google in the near future?