Facebook User Base Reaches One Billion

The number of people using Facebook has reached one billion people, according to a posting on the site made by CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg.

The social network, which first launched in 2004, has taken eight years to reach the milestone with 600 million of the Facebook user base accessing the network through a mobile device.

“This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month,” said Zuckerberg. “If you’re reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you.”

“Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life,” he continued. “I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.”

Facebook User Base

During its lifetime, Facebook has witnessed 1.13 trillion likes, 140.3 billion friend connections, 219 billion shared photos and 17 billion check-ins. Around 2.45 billion content items and2.7 billion content likes are shared every daily, while 300 million photos are uploaded daily.

However it has not all been plain sailing for the company. Privacy concerns continue to plague Facebook, in particular issues such as user control over personal data and face recognition software. But it was given a boost yesterday by French privacy watchdog CNIL, which ruled that a rumour that old private messages were appearing on users’ public timelines was false.

Facebook has also struggled to convince investors, with its share price plummeting since its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in May. Most of Facebook’s revenue is generated from advertising and other streams such as microtransactions using Facebook Credits, of which it takes a cut.

In an effort to further monetise its content, Facebook has recently introduced Promoted Posts, which allow users to leapfrog to the top of their friends’ news feeds for a fee of around $7.

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