Facebook - what are they planning?

The cat is out of the bag. Facebook has officially announced plans to float a small part of itself on the US stock exchange - a move expected to raise up to $5 billion. But what does this mean for the company and - more importantly - its army of 850 million users? Read on to find out.

The flotation
The flotation of Facebook will lead to new challenges and pressures for the company, even though Mark Zuckerberg will retain overall control. But for us Facebook users, the most pertinent question is how it will affect the social network many of us use on a daily basis.

Will it enable Facebook to develop even faster, or will it put the brakes on Facebook's long-term plans as investors put pressure on the company to boost short-term profits? A look into Facebook's immediate future suggests the former, with the social network flexing its muscles as it moves into new territories.

Will Facebook continue to be free?
One rumour currently doing the rounds is that Facebook will start charging for its services. This absolutely won't happen. Facebook will be free for the foreseeable future, mainly because its revenue is still overwhelmingly driven by ad revenue, which relies on it having hundreds of millions of users.

Not every aspect of using Facebook is free, however. App developers can charge for premium features in their apps, which are paid for using Facebook Credits. These yielded Facebook $550m in revenue last year, a valuable chunk of its overall revenues (nearly $4bn).

Facebook will want you to buy more and more Facebook Credits, but you won't need them in order to access the site itself. Instead, they'll be used to purchase premium services and products - US users are already using Facebook Credits to purchase movie downloads, for example. So expect services like Spotify and Netflix to start recognising Facebook Credits as a legitimate currency in 2012, with other companies swiftly following suit. Analysts even suspect Facebook Credits could one day be accepted outside Facebook, going up against more established providers like PayPal.

A change of view
The way we view and use Facebook will change quite dramatically in 2012. The big development is the Facebook Timeline, which has now been rolled out worldwide. If you've not already switched to this new type of profile page, you can do so now if you like. The switch will soon be implemented on everyone's profile page.

It's very much a Marmite development, which is why Facebook will spend 2012 trying to make it more appealing. Facebook's recent acquisition of travel-focused social networking site Gowalla hints at ways it may evolve, attempting to turn your Timeline into more of a narrative, with location-based content bought to the fore.

Look out too for increasing numbers of Timeline apps. These are designed to automatically share what you're doing as you're doing it. Part of the development of these apps has included replacing the Like button with something more relevant to the activity in question, so expect to see buttons such as 'Watched', 'Owned' and 'Wanted' appearing in place of the generic Like button soon.

Media integration
Back in September, Facebook launched various media-sharing services, enabling users to share what they're watching and listening to with friends and family. The UK debuted with just music sharing, but last month Netflix launched its movie and TV rental service with close ties to Facebook, allowing users to share what they're watching too.

The service will continue to expand and evolve in 2012. Just over a week ago Facebook launched a 'Listen with' button, making it possible to hear what your friends are listening to, allowing them to become your personal DJs.

There's also a rumour that Facebook has entered into discussions with Vevo, which currently distributes official music videos through YouTube. YouTube's licence expires next year, and it's possible Facebook will attempt to woo Vevo onto its own platform.

Going mobile
Facebook will continue to drive mobile usage, despite the fact that it's yet to develop significant revenues from mobile users due to difficulties translating its ad platform onto mobile devices.

Despite this problem, Facebook recognises that more and more people will access its service through mobile devices, which might explain why it's rumoured to be preparing an official Facebook mobile phone for launch sometime in 2013.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Facebook has partnered with HTC to produce a phone that will sport a heavily modified version of the Android operating system that features a deep integration with Facebook's core services. It's thought Facebook might be targeting the phone at developing countries where it's yet to make significant inroads.

Conclusion
Facebook's priority is to keep people using its services for longer, which in turn exposes them to more advertising and drives its revenues higher. Post-flotation, that's certain to become even more important.

In particular, the media-sharing services highlight Facebook's desire for its users to stay on the site for activities where they would traditionally hop off to another part of the web. There's even a recent tantalising glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg's desktop that hints at Facebook entering the search market, perhaps a retaliatory move against the recent launch of Google Plus.

Building this infrastructure costs money, which might explain why Facebook is selling off a small number of shares to raise the not-inconsiderable sum of $5bn. With Zuckerberg retaining absolute control of the company he founded, it seems likely this move will help speed up Facebook's push for change.