Analysts will be pouring over the details of Facebook’s S-1 filing, as the world’s most popular social network prepares for its initial public offering (IPO). But even a quick glance shows there’s more to Mark Zuckerberg’s business than friendships and likes.
Related: Social Commerce: Going Beyond Facebook
In 2011, Facebook generated $1 billion in profit from $3.7 billion in revenues. And in its current form, the business has two main revenue generators: advertising, and payments management.
In fact, 15% of Facebook’s 2011 revenues — $557 million — came from Facebook Payments, the system that all app developers must use to manage monetary exchanges within the social network.
Furthermore, the share of revenues attributable to Facebook Payments increased in each quarter of 2011, from 13% in Q1 to 17% in the last three months of 2011.
That share may grow as Facebook finds more ways to utilize its payments system, something the company says it is actively seeking to do. Already, Facebook has filed applications for “certain money transmitter licenses,” its S-1 says, “and expects to apply for additional money transmitter licenses in the United States.”
Facebook and its employees aren’t the only ones benefitting from the popularity of its Payments system: In the 2011 calendar year, the company paid developers more than $1.4 billion from transactions carried out over Facebook payments.
Facebook has a ways to go before becoming the leader in online payments — PayPal, for example, generated $1.2 billion in Q4 revenues in 2011, along with $4.4 billion in annual revenues. But perhaps the $5 billion capital infusion its IPO is expected to provide will help kickstart its competitiveness.
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