This week Facebook is expected to begin the procedure of becoming a publicly listed company.

Two insider reports have said the process could begin as early as Wednesday, and could see the social media site being valued at up to $100 billion.

The move is hotly anticipated and is predicted to dwarf Google’s $1.9 billion initial public offering.

The floatation will raise around $10 billion, pushing Facebook way beyond other social network sites and adding it to some of the world’s largest public companies – equal to the likes of McDonalds and the Bank of America.

An initial public offering sees the launch of an organisation on the stock market where a share price is set and the company valued.

Following the initial paperwork, the offering usually takes around four months.

Unnamed experts in the field have said that the social networking organisation could see $10 billion raised in an offering that would value the company at up to $100 billion.

This would dwarf the likes of Google that raised $1.9million in 2004.

CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg, 27, is already thought of as a billionaire because of shares traded on a closed market.

Facebook spokesman Larry Wu said the company would not comment on IPO-related speculation.

Facebook is not alone in wanting to go public. Farmville, the mobile application for Facebook, created by Zynaga also filed for an IPO of around $1 billion. Groupon recently plunged below its IPO price within the first weeks of trading.

Facebook is undoubtedly one of the world’s top web destinations, challenging more established organisations such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.