Facebook's IPO in pictures

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Facebook this week filed for its initial public offering (IPO). I focused on the financials (Facebook's IPO by the numbers) but it's worth noting that the filing included images too. Except for the one above, all the images you'll see in this gallery are directly from the SEC document.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
Yes, the first image in Facebook's filing is essentially a list of four numbers. Still, it's interesting to note the ones Facebook chose to underline: monthly active users, Likes & Comments per day, photos uploaded per day, and friendships.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
A digital display of the Facebook user community and the connections between users. On a blank background, the connections form a picture that approximates a global map.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
For the first time ever, Facebook released data on how its user base is growing. Here's what you have to know: Facebook has over 845 million monthly users, over 483 million daily users, and over 425 million mobile users.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
Facebook even provided a brief history of the company. Tomorrow is the company's 8th birthday!

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
Facebook underlined that its service allows users to "share photos with their friends and family" plus that friends and family can "Like or Comment on the photos."

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
Users can control what they share and with whom they share it. For example, each time a user updates his or her status, he or she can choose to share with everyone, with all friends, or with a subset of friends that the user can customize.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
Over time, people are consuming and creating more kinds of information at a faster pace across a broader range of devices. The growing volume of information makes it challenging to find meaningful and trusted content and to effectively make your voice heard. Facebook organizes and prioritizes content and serves as a powerful social distribution tool delivering to users what we believe they will find most compelling based on their friends and interests. Facebook’s social distribution enables users, Platform developers, and advertisers to share information with target audiences large or small.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
Facebook offers the ability to reach a vast consumer audience of over 800 million MAUs with a single advertising purchase. For example, a movie studio seeking to increase awareness of an upcoming film release can reach a broad audience of Facebook users on the day or week before the film’s opening.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
The Facebook News Feed is the core feature of a user’s homepage and is a regularly updating list of stories from friends, Pages, and other entities to which a user is connected on Facebook. It includes posts, photos, event updates, group memberships, app updates, and other activities. Each user’s News Feed is personalized based on his or her interests and the sharing activity of the user’s friends. Stories in a user’s News Feed are prioritized based on several factors, including how many friends have Liked or Commented on a certain piece of content, who posted the content, and what type of content it is. News Feed is a key component of our social distribution capability.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
Websites can integrate with Facebook using simple social plugins such as the Like button or design more deeply integrated social experiences built around users and their friends. For example, by tapping into our rich social data, TripAdvisor connects users to their friends and shares relevant content about where their friends have traveled and where they would like to visit in the future. While on the TripAdvisor website, friends can discuss their travel plans and recommendations and build out personal profiles of places they have been.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
Advertisers can use our analytics platform to track and optimize the performance of their campaigns in real time. Facebook ad analytics enable advertisers to gain insights into which ads were displayed and clicked on. These analytics help advertisers make modifications to their ad campaigns in order to maximize results. Advertisers with Facebook Pages can also view the number of users who Liked and Commented on their Page and a newly introduced metric, "People Talking About This," which shows how many stories about their brand are being created and shared.

Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski
The last image in the SEC filing is very fitting: it's a Thank You to all the Facebook users who made the social network as successful as it is. Thank you for viewing this gallery.

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Published: March 1, 2012 -- 13:46 GMT (05:46 PST)
Caption by: Emil Protalinski