Modest goals don't seem to be on the agenda for Facebook. Sheryl Sandberg, the company's chief operating officer, is shooting for Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). The social networking company seeks its ad market as rivaling (or even surpassing) Google's search ad market in size. Facebook says it's on target to bring in $500 million in revenue this year (Sandberg didn't confirm it, though).
With its 300 million users, Sandberg has been trying to convince the world that her company has a solid business model in place. The perception that eyeballs don't necessarily equal dollars, born of the internet boom a decade ago, isn't necessarily true any more, as demonstrated by Google's ability to monetize search (and hit record profits) has demonstrated. For the third quarter of 2009, the search engine giant raked in net revenue of $4.38 billion.
There's plenty at stake. Sandberg estimates that global ad spend adds up to $640 billion, 10% of which is the fulfillment of demand (the space in which Google plays). So, Facebook could do worse than to tap into what amounts to a $64 billion segment, with hitting even 10% of the segment's size being an order of magnitude larger than Facebook's current target.
Making a play on search? Not a bad idea for Facebook. It wasn't that long ago that many wondered just how the hell Google would make money.
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