Even though Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has been stating since long that he is in no hurry to make Facebook go public, recent reports have revealed that the popular social network is gearing up for what will probably be the biggest-ever initial public offerings (IPO), thus far, for a Web company.

With Facebook reportedly heading towards an IPO, it is essential that CEO Zuckerberg, 27, and the company’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, 42, can effectively assure the investors that the social network is all set for the big time.

The assurance by these two executives will strike the requisite chord with the investors in the wake of the fact that while Zuckerberg has chiefly been focusing on building social features for the popular; Sandberg has, for the last 3 1/2 years, nurturing associations with global brands and working out new ways to enable marketers reach out to the users of Facebook.

The efforts undertaken by Sandberg have apparently yielded the desired results, with statistics from research firm eMarketer revealing that Facebook's advertising revenue leaped to a whopping $US3.8 billion in
2011, from $US264 million in 2008. Going by the firm’s predictions, the overall yearly revenue of Facebook will likely touch approximately $US6 billion by the end of 2012.

Meanwhile, discussing the future strategies for Facebook with The Wall Street Journal in October, Zuckerberg had said that since the social network aims at “getting people to connect,” the company deeply appreciates the fact that “a really strong business” has to be built.