Facebook appears unstoppable at the moment. According to a new report from Reuters, the social network’s revenue for the first half of 2011 stands at $1.6 billion – double what it earned in the first half of 2010.
While Facebook does not disclose its financial results, an insider told a Reuters reporter that Facebook’s net income for the first half of this year came in at $500 million. Whether this was a deliberate ‘leak’ to drive up the valuation of the company before its IPO remains to be seen.
Facebook is fast becoming the operating system for delivering ads on the web. It accounts for nearly one third of all Internet display ad impressions in the US. This is more than Yahoo, Microsoft Corp, Google and AOL combined. Cost per click on a Facebook ad has increased 62% between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of 2011.
As Facebook sets to go public in 2012, these figures will likely increase its valuation. At present the markets are valuing the company anywhere between $50-$80 billion.
We do know, from figures obtained by Goldman Sachs, that Facebook earned $355 million in profits in the first nine months of 2010 on earnings of $1.2 billion.

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