Latest Issue. Past Issues. This article is from the archive of our partner. With its public offering this MayFacebook went from the world’s biggest social network to the world’s most closely watched young company in America. The official S-1 filing only created more pressure to turn its social potential into capital. So when the IPO turned as famously bad as it did — the new stock didn’t pop, and shares continued to fall for weeks after — Facebook had some proving to do, this time with shareholders watching. Amidst all that, and largely because of it, the world witnessed a whole year of the social network hpw a delicate balancing act: Facebook has been trying to turn its billion-plus users into a billions-of-dollars money engine, but they have to do it without pissing everybody off.