Facebook has stopped taking orders for its shares ahead of its much-hyped stock market flotation on Friday - which could value the company at more than $100bn (£63bn).
Demand has been so strong the company increased the number of shares for sale by 25%, and pushed the price up from $28-$35 (£18-£22) to $34-$38 (£21-£24) per share, pricing the company at between $93bn and $104bn (£58bn to £65bn).
The Nasdaq exchange in New York, where the Facebook stock will be listed, has reportedly been running tests on its systems for several days to prepare for an anticipated frenzy.
But as Facebook's fans prepare to fight for a share in the company, its critics are already questioning its $100bn price tag.
General Motors - which owns the Vauxhall brand in the UK - has just pulled its $10m (£6.3m) advertising contract, claiming Facebook's ads had little impact on consumers' decisions to buy cars.
And the social network itself has admitted its ability to make money from customers using the site on mobile phones, now around half of Facebook's users, is "uncertain and will take time".
Facebook undoubtedly has extraordinary reach, with more than 900 million users worldwide, transcending race, religious and national boundaries. The challenge now will be turning what is essentially a social network, into a profitable, commercial one.
Jason Jenkins, editor of CNET UK, said: "Can Facebook possibly be worth $100bn? It's hard to see how. Most of its revenue comes from advertising, but some advertisers are complaining that they are not getting a good return on their ad money, and the ads themselves are unsophisticated.
"I can't see Mark Zuckerberg and his team ever running the kinds of invasive ads that advertisers will increasingly demand in exchange for the millions they are sending Facebook's way.
"Given that, I'm not sure where the mega-profits shareholders expect to see will come from."
But social media evangelists insist Facebook's advertising does work, if in a more subtle, sophististicated way. Zuckerberg's younger sister works for the social media marketing company Wildfire in Silicon Valley.
Its chief executive, Victoria Ransom, told Sky News: "Facebook has got this ability to really turn friend recommendations into advertising content, and the trust level is so much higher. I think it's a new form of marketing.
"It's really reacting to the fact that consumers are looking for friend recommendations. They're not looking to just be blasted with advertising messages from brands they don't trust."
The Badoo social network has 150 million users in 180 countries. Its marketing chief, Jessica Powell, said that while Facebook's growth had been admirable, it would have to find a way to make mobile use pay.
"(Facebook) has a huge number of their users who are using the mobile application every single day, but that's not something that they're monetising," she said.
"As more and more of the world moves to either dual platform or just mobile only use, the inability to monetise could be quite problematic."
Facebook's mission, according to its soon to be multi-billionaire founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is to "make the world more open and connected".
In the company's glossy corporate roadshow video, the 28-year-old says: "We think that people's live are going to be better and really that the whole world will function better, when there's more information out there about both the big things in the world and the local things - what's going on with your friends and the people around you."
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone provided by Airtel Nigeria.
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