Salesforce.com: The First $1 Billion SaaS Company?

Salesforce.com announced strong quarterly financial results today, and the company expects revenue for its full year (ending in January 2009) to exceed $1 billion. Does that mean Salesforce.com will become the first $1 billion software as a service (SaaS) company?

Admittedly, I’m not sure. There are some highly vertical SaaS software and monitoring companies that may generate more than $1 billion in SaaS revenue. And some folks may argue that Google (annual revenues: $16.5 billion) is a SaaS company.

But Salesforce.com is the poster child for SaaS, and breaking the $1 billion mark will be a watershed event.

If you’re a small managed service provider testing the SaaS waters, keep an eye on Salesforce.com’s potential transition from CRM software provider to an online application development platform.