Whether people are talking about the lack of privacy settings or some heartwarming story originating from the popular social network, Facebook is always talked about in the news. This time it’s because they have filed for a $5 billion Initial Public Offering in company stock. What may be a surprising move, the notoriously private company has now put much of their insider information out on the table for the public to see.

Information like company revenue, ownership percentages and the general functions has always been speculated with no real confirmation to any company facts. It is now known that in 2011, Facebook generated almost $4 billion in revenue – mostly from ad services and partnerships with game developers. That’s still a lot of money for a company that offers free services to their members!

However, when that $4 billion is broken down and divided by the number of members, about 845 million, that makes that large revenue not look so great. While still impressive, that breaks down to an annual revenue of just over $4 per member! That’s not a lot of money anymore.

People are now questioning how Facebook will continue to survive. With 845 million members already, how much higher can they go? When will their profits start to slide? How will they avoid going downhill from here? Facebook has become amazingly popular, but it seems as though the numbers have to even out sometime.

Along with their IPO filing, Facebook also released public concerns about other social networking websites that may gain popularity and pull away from their member base. So how would Facebook keep the members they have, but increase their revenue? Speculation suggests that they could start posting more ads on their Website, sell member’s information or start charging for service.

About 483 million people log into their Facebook account on a daily basis. Charging this large number of people would give the social networking giant an easy way to increase their revenue. However, once a member has gotten the free Facebook service for years, it isn’t easy to keep the same customers once you start charging them for the same service. I, for one, would not be willing to pay a fee for a service that I’ve been using for years at no charge.

So how will Facebook step up and keep the Website fresh and interesting to fight off new social network rivals? What will keep them ahead of the game, but continue to increase revenue? Only time will tell what steps Facebook will take to solidify the success of the company.