Facebook Made $500 Million from $3.2 Billion in Revenue in First Half 2011

Facebook has been very secretive about its financial details, anything else about its business that it can keep private. But the site is known to be driving up revenue and income.

The latest numbers, coming from people familiar with the matter, via Reuters, show that Facebook made $1.6 billion in the first half of the year.

The revenue figure is below previous expectations, but the company also managed to get $500 million in net profit, a much better profitability rate than it had managed in previous years.

Facebook is now on track to make at least $3.2 billion in revenue and $1 in profits by the end of the year.

Since the company is still growing as is its ad and credits revenue, the figures could be bigger even if they only follow this year's trend.

The company is estimated to have made some $2 billion in 2010 and $600 million in profits.

The latest figures show that, not only is the company growing fast, it's also becoming more efficient, extracting better profits from its revenue.

Facebook only brought in $777 million in 2009, only $200 million of which it got to keep. However, the site has been focused on healthy and organic growth and not revenue numbers.

That's part of the reason why Facebook has stayed a private company for so long. It managed to raise more than enough money from investors to keep it going without having to make too much money on its own.

Facebook is valued at about $80 billion in the secondary markets. The company pushed back going public for as long as possible, but an IPO is very likely in the first part of 2012.

Facebook is still a small player in the online advertising world, but it is quickly gaining weight. The site is expected to make about 10 times less than Google this year, but it has 750 million users and a very solid position.