If Facebook is valued at $75B then it warrants the question: What’s $75B mean?

Well, IBM is about $200B.

Cisco is about $100B.

Canon is about $60B.

I’m no smarty pants, but these three companies provide goods and services that are valuable to a lot of folks all around the world. Facebook, on the other hand, is really communications and marketing infrastructure (or a platform for really good advertising).

Don’t get me wrong; I’m no naysayer or Luddite. I do think Facebook is worth a lot of dough–perhaps $75B is legit–but there’s just something fishy about suggesting it’s on par with the Ciscos and Canons of the world.

Here, think of it this way: If Cisco and Facebook went insolvent in the morning, what would you observe? If both were public companies, shareholders at Cisco would wait in line for assets to be liquidated. Facebook? Wouldn’t it evaporate like dew in the summer sun?

Bottom line: Facebook has the opportunity to get the right product in front of the right person at the right time more than any other company in the history of human kind. That’s pretty crazy–and valuable.