Facebook to Have Made $2 Billion in 2010, Though It's Now Worth 25X That

Facebook has been generating quite a lot of buzz lately and, for once, it's not about some new feature or some new privacy issue, it's about its latest funding round, which will end up bringing in $2 billion for Facebook, while the company is valued at $50 billion.

Those are certainly impressive numbers, but they raise the perennial question, how much does Facebook make anyway?

Thankfully, we now have some numbers that are probably as close to the real thing as we've ever had.

Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times cite sources saying that Facebook brought in $777 million in revenue in 2009, for a profit of about $200 million.

In 2010, revenue grew exponentially, as Facebook is said to have made $2 billion with about $400 million in net income. There have been plenty of estimates so far, some not that far off, but the numbers are still slightly above what has been speculated.

The numbers indicate that not only is Facebook starting to see some real money, its revenue is also growing fast, more than doubling in one year. Following this trend, Facebook could bring in $5 billion this year and $1 billion in profits.

From this perspective, the financial future of the social network seems a solid one and the company could become one of the largest web companies around, based on revenue.

However, a $2 billion yearly revenue doesn't justify a $50 billion value and there are some people who are becoming weary of Facebook's increasingly dizzying valuation.

But this doesn't seem to be putting off most potential investors. Goldman Sachs, the bank which has just poured in $450 million into Facebook is said to be creating a "special purpose vehicle" which will enable some of its big clients to invest in Facebook indirectly, via a $1.5 billion fund managed by the bank. Already, the vehicle is said to be oversubscribed, despite having some though requirements.