NICE work if you can get it right? The company founded in a Harvard dormitory will soon become the biggest tech stock market debut ever. How can Facebook be worth so much?

I had the very best of intentions of writing about poor, neglected Google+ this week, and then Mark Zuckerberg decided this was the week to announce Facebook's long awaited Initial Public Offering, which seeks to raise $5b while valuing the company somewhere above $75b - astronomical sums, despite Facebook's ubiquity.

We have discussed aspects of the Facebook phenomenon here on previous occasions, but this does seem a pretty momentous one: by filing for its IPO on Wednesday, Facebook opened a window into the inner workings of the most dynamic company on the internet.

The filing reveals all sorts of interesting things about Facebook and its business model. Zuckerberg earned a total $1.49m (including private jet use), Facebook generates a "substantial majority" of its revenue from advertising, and gaming company Zynga, maker of Farmville, contributed 12 percent of earnings, almost $500m. 

Advertising rates are going up, even as inventory soars, and although ads comprise 85 percent of the company’s revenues, they are not yet making as much money from ads as they would like.

I find Facebook’s advertising ever more relevant, which is kind of scary, but also useful, and sometimes both at the same time: yesterday I signed-up to the Cairns Zumba World Record Attempt via a Facebook advert on my Timeline.

Given the site is free, and I spend so much time on it for work, I actually take time to remove Facebook advertisments and tell the website why. Yes, I’m helping Zuckerberg get rich, but any billionaire who can live in such an unassuming house gets my vote (the filing reveals that Zuch earned a basic $500k last year and shares his private jet with family and friends, so he’s not doing too bad).

Facebook is cash rich, generating $1b profit on $3.7b revenues last year. Money from the payments business – Farmville, etc – grew 500 percent, and keeps exploding.

Just as portrayed in The Social Network, last year’s Oscar-winning film, Facebook’s founders seem very much in control. Not only will Mark Zuckerberg become one of the richest men in the world, but nearly 1,000 Facebook employees will become instant millionaires overnight.

Facebook’s float is the biggest tech business story of the decade, promises to be the most lucrative tech IPO in US history, and possibly the biggest launch ever. On Facebook’s first trading day, sometime in the next few months, the company could be valued at as much as $100 billion.

You are either on Facebook, along with at 845 million others around the world, or you are one of the increasingly rare refuseniks who have defiantly refused to embrace the hottest fad on the planet. If this is you, just what have you got to hide!?

Whatever happens, its clear that Facebook’s IPO will be the most eagerly awaited share debut since Google’s.

And Google+? Well it certainly has its work cut out catching up on Facebook’s 800 million member head start. Yes, some 90 million early adopting social networkers around the world have an account, but how many have checked back since they signed-up? I certainly haven’t: Facebook is far too addictive for that.

However, in the interests of balance, fairness and journalistic investigation, next week I will spend five days going cold turkey on Facebook, taking Google+’s social network medicine instead. Join me at googleplus.com/simoncrerar. Full report in next Saturday’s Weekend Post.

Got a question about The Cairns Post? Something to say about this column? Something to share? Contact our Online Editor on crerars@tcp.newsltd.com.au or follow him at twitter.com/simoncrerar 

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