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Facebook's IPO by the numbers

What's the best way to figure out what a financial document is talking about? Focus on the numbers, not just the letters. Here's a quick rundown of the information Facebook released today.
Written by Emil Protalinski, Contributor

Facebook today filed for its initial public offering (IPO) and so of course hype is at an all time high. You're seeing the typical speculation, the usual comparisons to other technology giants like Google, and of course talk about how much Facebook is really worth.

Regardless of all the crazy headlines you'll see and are going to see, there's one thing that the IPO is really all about: the numbers. Here are the numbers you need to know, plus a few extra ones about Facebook in general (see also: Facebook's IPO in pictures).

$1 is the salary Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be paid starting in 2013.

12 percent of Facebook's revenue comes from Zynga, including both payments revenue and advertising that is displayed alongside Zynga games.

15 companies have been acquired by Facebook so far.

21 mentions of competing and/or partnering companies with Facebook. More specifically, Google is mentioned 14 times, Google+ is mentioned twice, Microsoft is mentioned five times, Twitter is mentioned twice, while both Friendster and MySpace go unmentioned.

35 mentions of the word "privacy."

39.4 percent year-over-year growth in Facebook's net income (read: profit) from 2010 to 2011.

46.8 percent year-over-year growth in Facebook's revenue from 2010 to 2011.

56 percent of Facebook's revenue comes from advertisers and Platform developers based in the U.S. This number is down from 62 percent in 2010.

57.1 percent of Class B shares (voting control) owned by Mark Zuckerberg.

70 different languages are supported by Facebook.

$29.73 is the share price of Facebook's Class B common stock as of December 31, 2011. A single Class B share can be converted into a Class A share, but it has 10 times the voting power.

3,200 employees work for Facebook around the world as of December 31, 2011.

$200,000 is the amount Facebook paid for the facebook.com domain when it finally dropped the "The" from its name in 2005.

$0.7 million is the amount in advertisements GMG Lifestyle Entertainment purchased from Facebook in 2011. The company also purchased $0.9 million worth of ads in 2010.

$783,529 spent on Zuckerberg's "comprehensive security program" in 2011, which included the procurement, installation, and maintenance of security measures for his personal residence, annual costs of security personnel, and the use of private aircraft.

1.9 million is the number in square feet Facebook leased for its office facilities around the world as of December 31, 2011.

$3.8 million is the amount in advertisements Netflix purchased from Facebook in 2011. The company also purchased $1.9 million worth of ads in 2009 and $1.6 million worth of ads in 2010.

$4.2 million is the amount in advertisements The Washington Post Company and its related companies purchased from Facebook in 2011. They also purchased $0.6 million worth of ads in 2009 and $4.8 million worth of ads in 2010.

$8.5 million is the amount Facebook is thought to have paid the American Farm Bureau Federation (FB) for the fb.com domain name on November 15, 2010, making the acquisition one of the ten highest domain sales in history.

37 million Facebook Pages with 10 or more Likes as of December 31, 2011.

$65 million is the amount Facebook agreed to settle with ConnectU and the Winklevoss brothers in February 2008. That legal battle is still raging.

$68 million spent on acquisitions by Facebook in 2011. These acquisitions, and in fact all of Facebook's acquisitions, were not material to its consolidated financial statements individually or in the aggregate.

161 million monthly active U.S. Facebook users as of December 31, 2011.

$240 million is the amount Microsoft invested in Facebook on October 24, 2007, to purchase a 1.6 percent share of the social networking giant at a total implied value of around $15 billion.

250 million photos uploaded to Facebook daily in the three months ended December 31, 2011.

$388 million in research and development expenses spent by Facebook in 2011, or about 10.5 percent of its revenue last year. The company also spent $87 million in 2009 and $144 million in 2010.

425 million monthly active mobile Facebook users as of December 31, 2011. It was over 350 million on September 22, 2011.

483 million daily active users on average using Facebook throughout December 2011. It was at 500 million on a specific day a few months ago.

533,801,850 shares owned by Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, or a 28.4 percent stake in the company. Good thing he didn't sell it, like he wanted to in 2004.

$557 million Facebook's revenue from payments and other fees in 2011, or about 15.01 percent of its total revenue.

845 million monthly active Facebook users as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 39 percent as compared to 608 million monthly active users as of December 31, 2010. It was over 800 million on September 22, 2011.

1 billion is the number of monthly active users Facebook is expected to pass this year, possibly in August.

$1 billion was Facebook's net income (read: profit) in 2011. This is lower than a recent leak, but it's pretty solid given growth from previous years: $229 million in 2009 and $606 million in 2010.

$1.4 billion paid out to developers from transactions enabled by Facebook's Payments infrastructure in 2011.

2.7 billion Likes and Comments made per day during the three months ended December 31, 2011.

$3.154 billion was Facebook's revenue from advertising in 2011, or about 84.99 percent of its total revenue.

$3.711 billion was Facebook's total revenue in 2011. This is lower than some projections, but it's still pretty solid given growth from past years: 777 million in 2009 and $1.974 billion in 2010.

$3.908 billion was Facebook's total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities at the end of 2011.

$5 billion is the amount Facebook is hoping to raise with its IPO filing.

9.7 billion average number of minutes spent per day by Facebook users on personal computers during December 2011.

100 billion friend connections on Facebook as of December 31, 2011.

1 trillion monthly page views on Facebook, according to June 2011 data from Google.

Did I miss something? Let me know!

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