Knowledge Bridge

//Kevin Anderson /May 2 / 2012

Facebook by the numbers

With Facebook’s debut on the stock market just around the corner, it’s useful to take a look at some statistics to get a sense of where it fits into the world of news and information and also where it fits into the world of business. San Francisco-based designer Dustin Curtis went through one of Facebook’s latest financial filings, and he condensed the report into tables of rather striking numbers. I’ll highlight just a few of the things he found:

Total users and engagement

125 billion friendships
2 billion likes per day
1 billion comments posted per day
901 million monthly active users
526 million daily active users
488 million monthly active mobile users
302 million photos uploaded each day

I’d flag up the number of total monthly active mobile users in this group, 488m. That’s a huge number, and moreover, this isn’t just people in North America and Europe on their flashy smartphones, this is also people in Africa, Latin America and Asia using Facebook’s mobile optimised site Zero for free with mobile phone carriers that have partnered with the social network.

User penetration (percentage of internet users who use Facebook)

85% Chile, Turkey and Venezuela
60% India, the United Kingdom and the United States
30%-40% Brazil and Germany
20% Japan, Russia and South Korea
0% China

Of course, Facebook’s financial report left out Asian countries including Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines where the vast majority of internet users use Facebook and other social networking services.

Facebook isn’t the only social network and in some countries, most notably Russia, it is dwarfed by domestic competitors such as vKontakte. However, in many countries, Facebook ranks as the first or second most popular site.

With so many people sharing content with friends, Facebook can help bring new readers, viewers and listeners to the news and information you’re creating.

Article by Kevin Anderson