When Facebook filed its IPO papers with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, some interesting facts about the company were revealed.
While the filing focused on the social network’s revenue and user-base growth, it also noted details on employee growth, security for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and top executives’ base pay.
Here’s a quick look at some of the more eye-popping tidbits:
Last year, Facebook spent about $700,000 on the use of a personal plane for Zuckerberg and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. Zuckerberg may use the plane for business and personal use because of security concerns. He’s also able to take his family and friends.
Zuckerberg has Facebook-funded personal security. The filing doesn’t specify how much the company spends on his “comprehensive security program,” but it covers the installation of security at his home, as well as the cost of security personnel.
At the end of last year, Facebook had 3,200 full-time employees, which was a 50 per centincrease over 2010. There also was solid growth between 2009 and 2010 when the number of employees went from 1,218 to 2,127.
Zynga, the developer of popular social networking games such as FarmVille and CityVille, accounted for 12 per centof Facebook’s total revenue in 2011. That revenue consisted of payment processing fees related to Zynga’s sales of virtual goods and from direct advertising purchased by Zynga.
Facebook is available in more than 70 languages.
The company has offices or data centres in more than 20 countries.
For research and development, Facebook spent $81 million in 2007; $47 million in 2008; $87 million in 2009; and $144 million in 2010. In 2011, the company spent $388 million on R&D, a sum that was 10.5 per centof its revenue. Google, in comparison, spent 14 per centof its revenue on R&D last year.
Where is Facebook the most popular? The company reports more than 80 per centof the population in Chile, Turkey, and Venezuela have Facebook accounts. Facebook has about 60 per centpenetration in the U.K. and the U.S. In China, where Facebook access is restricted, it has near 0 per centpenetration.
At the end of 2011, Facebook owned 56 patents and had filed applications for 503 more in the U.S. It had 33 corresponding patents and had filed 149 patent applications in foreign countries.
Zuckerberg had a base salary of $500,000 last year. He also received $220,500 for the company’s “First Half 2011” bonus.
If Zuckerberg dies while running the company, control may be transferred to a person or entity that he designates as his successor.
Online Managing Editor Sharon Machlis contributed to this report.