Facebook Inc. (FB): $20/Share Solely on Search Potential?

Facebook Inc.Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) has expressed a lot of potential in its business model going forward, as it tries to keep investors and encourage new investing to offset the lack of success since the company’s IPO in May. With the social-network site surpassing one billion users recently, there is a treasure trove of information for Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) and advertisers to access and use for their benefit. But how valuable is that information when investors in the company’s stock, like billionaire fund manager George Soros of Soros Fund Management, are having trouble finding good revenue numbers for the company?

Perhaps one should look beyond or somewhere differently than the simple price/earnings ratio, according to a recent article by an analyst – who disclosed he was long on Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB). This company has been an enigma based on strict numbers; the analyst wanted to talk about the potential for the company if it follows through on CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s optimistic talk of the development of a search tool that he claimed would rival Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG). The main focus of the article is on data and how the amount of data compiled will determine a company’s strength in the “new economy.” And with a billion users and all of the information available about those users, Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) can be specially positioned to develop a search engine that can access information that Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) just won’t have. Based on that, there is a theory that Facebook Inc. (FB) may be worth $20 per share just because of search and the revenue potential – never mind what is currently happening with the company.

“While many people will speculate that Facebook search will not become that popular, nor will it create real competition for Google, current numbers are painting a very different picture,” the author wrote. “In fact, as mentioned by Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is already generating over a billion searches per day, and that’s even without having an actual search product.”