Facebook Revenues Double as Big Brands Pile In

There’s been a lot of talk recently about Facebook possibly going public in the not-too-distant future the social-media company did itself a favor in the first half of 2011 by doubling its revenue to $1.6 billion from the $800 million it made during the same period a year ago. 

The social networking giant “will begin disclosing financial information next April,” Britain's The Drum reports.

The Wall Street Journal also notes that the Facebook board just added its seventh member, Erskine Bowles, a former chief of staff to President Clinton. The board’s sixth member, Netflix chief Reed Hastings, only joined the group in June. 

Its other members are company founder Mark Zuckerberg; Ning cofounder Marc Andreessen; Jim Breyer, who was named one of the 10 smartest people in technology by Forbes in 2010; Washington Post CEO Don Graham, and PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel.

So where is all the cash coming from? “Big brands are pouring onto the site to reach consumers through display ads and fan pages,” The Drum reports. What's more, “Facebook brand campaigns, or fan pages created by big companies, are up 104% from last year,” according to a report by TBG Digital.  

eMarketer notes that Facebook's global ad revenue has gone up 50 times from $40 million in 2006 to almost $2 billion in 2010 and is expected to keep growing to $6 billion next year.

At this rate, the site's theme song should be "We're in the money!"