Facebook tops one billion users worldwide
FACEBOOK yesterday said it had reached 1bn active users for the first time.
Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) announced the milestone on his own profile, writing: “Hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.”
The social network, which has experienced a difficult six months since its initial public offering (IPO) in May, added that since the website was founded by Zuckerberg in 2004, it has seen 219bn photos uploaded, 140bn friend connections, and 1.13 trillion clicks of the “like” button.
Facebook also said 600m people were accessing the network via mobile phones, an area where Zuckerberg has admitted he has a problem due to the difficulty in placing adverts on a smaller screen. The 1bn mark was reached slightly later than some predicted, after user growth slowed.
As European and North America have become saturated, Facebook has looked to new territories for expansion. Zuckerberg visited Russia this week, a country where it has just 7m users, to meet Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
Brazil, Mexico and India are also sources of growth for Facebook.