Facebook''s business valued at $50 billion

Social media giant Facebook recently announced that it is valued at $50 billion, a business valuation that holds great weight in today's economy. It seems that everyone is watching to see what will happen with Facebook next. The Palo Alto-based company recently raised $1.5 billion: $1 billion through an overseas Goldman Sachs Group fund and $500 million invested in stock by Digital Sky Technologies. There is no immediate plan in place for the new funds, but the company will likely continue to invest in building and expanding operations. As the business valuation of Facebook continues to skyrocket, industry experts wonder when the social networking site will become a publicly-traded company. The potential scope of the site is immense. "Even before the investment from Goldman Sachs, Facebook had expected to pass 500 shareholders at some point in 2011, and therefore expects to start filing public financial reports no later than April 30, 2012," the company recently said. According to Facebook, the site has more than 500 million active users and 50 percent of those users log on to the site on any given day. Additionally, people spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook and the average user has 130 friends.