( CNN ) -- If Facebook and Wall Street become friends , will you like it ? For the past couple of years , the potential for Facebook to go public has been bandied about a lot in tech circles , with more and more of the digital tea leaves suggesting that the social-networking juggernaut will , in fact , one day become a publicly traded commodity . The speculation has heated up again this week . And , amid all the chatter about financial disclosures and initial public offerings , another question has emerged : What would it mean for the average Facebook user ? The Wall Street Journal this week quoted unnamed sources who said Facebook is `` inching closer '' to a public offering , in spring or early summer , that would value the company at more than $ 100 billion . According to the report , Facebook would look to raise a staggering $ 10 billion during its initial public offering . A $ 100 billion valuation would price the social-networking giant at more than twice the value of tech institutions such as Hewlett-Packard Co. and 3M Co. , the Journal reported . A Facebook spokesman declined to comment for this article . For folks who have followed Facebook 's now-iconic rise from dorm-room project to online hangout for more than 800 million users , the money talk may be all well and good . But some of them say they are concerned that , when the stock shares start hitting the market , the ingenuity that built Facebook could disappear . TechCrunch writer Josh Constine was n't optimistic in a post bluntly titled `` Why Greedy Stockholders and a $ 100 Billion IPO Could Hurt Facebook . '' Constine argues that if Facebook becomes beholden to stockholders , the site would be less free to innovate and would need to make profit a more important consideration than user experience . In other words , it could mean more ads popping up on users ' pages , for example . `` ( O ) utside stockholders could detract from Facebook 's vision and momentum , '' he wrote . `` They could push for faster returns , and pressure the company to display more ads , turn mobile into a direct revenue stream , and play it safe with product . This might produce short-term gains , but could hamper what CEO Mark Zuckerberg has built into a core communications utility for the world . '' Constine cited Facebook changes such as the News Feed . It 's hard to fathom now , but in 2006 when the site 's centerpiece feature rolled out , it was a radical departure . And people hated it . If short-term stock price had been the site 's prime concern then , he says , Facebook may have hesitated to make such a change . `` Changes that disrupt user behavior and ask people to be more open might cause temporary stock price dips ( stockholders ) do n't want , '' he wrote . `` Instead , they could turn Facebook into Microsoft , slowing innovation and making it vulnerable to more agile competitors . '' At ReadWriteWeb , Marshall Kirkpatrick had a more upbeat take , writing that a Facebook flush with new cash could be good for innovation . `` Why ? Because the Facebook IPO could mean more and bigger startup acquisitions , more support for more startups and an infusion of smart money and experience into radically new tech experiments . '' Kirkpatrick notes that Facebook 's IPO documents would detail how it plans to spend the money it raises . `` If the company signals then that more and bigger acquisitions are an important part of its strategy , that alone will be good news for startups , '' he wrote . Sucharita Mulpuru , an analyst with Forrester Research who specializes in online commerce , has a take that jibes with some of both arguments . `` The biggest con of going public is quarterly investor scrutiny and the pressure that puts on short-term goals , '' she told CNN . `` The biggest pro is generally the liquidity it offers shareholders , including employees , but in Facebook 's case , that may not be such a big benefit as the shares are already being exchanged in the private market . '' In a financial landscape dominated by quarterly earnings reports , she said it would n't be enough for Facebook to make money . To keep Wall Street happy , it would continually have to make more money than it did the quarter before . `` The impact on users is that Facebook will face significant pressure to grow quarter over quarter -- that may degrade the user experience if the way to achieve that is to blast more useless ads to users , '' she said . `` The biggest challenge for Facebook over time will be to continue to engage users and not alienate them . '' And about that $ 100 billion price tag ? She says it 's not out of the question . `` Even Groupon , which is horribly unprofitable and has a questionable business model , has a market cap now more than $ 10 billion , '' she said . `` Is Facebook worth 10 times that ? Yes , because it makes much more money than Groupon , has far fewer employees , a stronger management team and a clear target market in display advertising . `` On the other hand , is Facebook worth more than Google , or a third of Apple ? That remains to be seen . We 're not exactly in a rational market right now . ''
Questions arise over what a publicly traded Facebook would mean to users . Some fear a constant need to please stockholders would mean less innovation and more ads . Others worry that the company could become too powerful, stifling free speech on its platform or even shutting down accounts of people who criticize it. The Wall Street Journal : Facebook will go public next year at $ 100 billion valuation .