Facebook, the enormously successful social networking website, has filed its initial public offering, allowing the public to buy shares for the first time.

Facebook is looking to raise $5 billion. It did not announce what the price per share would be or how many shares would be offered for sale. Facebook has hired several well-known investment houses, including Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan Chase, to handle the move from a private to a publicly-owned company.

Facebook had more than $3.7 billion in revenue last year and is looking to expand.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg began Facebook in his college dormitory room at Harvard University just eight years ago. It has since grown to more than 800 million users around the world. They use Facebook to post photographs and write details about their lives, often reconnecting with long-lost friends and family members.