How many users does Facebook have?
With almost 2.5 billion monthly active users as of the fourth quarter of 2019, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide. In the third quarter of 2012, the number of active Facebook users surpassed one billion, making it the first social network ever to do so. Active users are those which have logged in to Facebook during the last 30 days. During the last reported quarter, the company stated that 2.9 billion people were using at least one of the company’s core products (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger) each month.
Facebook users definition: Facebook measures monthly active users as users that have logged in during the past 30 days. Figures do not include Instagram or WhatsApp users unless they would otherwise qualify as such users, respectively, based on their other activities on Facebook.
Cumulative number of monthly Facebook product users
Facebook product users definition: According to Facebook, “we define a monthly active person (MAP) as a registered and logged-in user of Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and/or WhatsApp (collectively, our “Family” of products) who visited at least one of these Family products through a mobile device application or using a web or mobile browser in the last 30 days as of the date of measurement. The numbers for MAP do not include users on our other products unless they would otherwise qualify as MAP based on their other activities on our Family products.”
During the last reported quarter, the company stated that 2.89 billion people were using at least one of the company’s core products (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger) each month.
- Q2 2018: 2.50 billion
- Q3 2018: 2.60 billion
- Q4 2018: 2.64 billion
- Q1 2019: 2.69 billion
- Q2 2019: 2.76 billion
- Q3 2019: 2.82 billion
- Q4 2019: 2.89 billion
(Source: See 2 below)
How Facebook started
Facebook was founded in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg and some of his contemporaries. Facebook service was initially only available to Harvard students but soon expanded to regional universities, the Ivy League and further colleges before opening up to high school students and global users aged 13 or over. Currently, Facebook is the biggest social networking service based on global reach and total active users. As of October 2018, India, the United States and Indonesia rank first in terms of Facebook user base size (see chart below).
(Source: See 3 below)
How Facebook works
Facebook users must register before using the social network and are free to create a personal profile in order to interact with other users which they can add as friends. Furthermore, Facebook users may join user groups based on workplace, college or school and can also categorize their Facebook contacts into lists. Users can post status updates or other content and message each other. Facebook users can also interact with a wide selection of applications including social games (see chart below) or other services like the photo-sharing app Instagram (see chart below).
(Source: See 4 below)
(Source: See 5 below)
Mobile Facebook usage
The social network is also accessible to mobile web users and has published a series of apps based on original Facebook features such as Facebook Messenger, which had 1.3 billion monthly active users as of the most recently reported period. The wide range of Facebook-related apps ensure that the company is one of the most popular app publishers worldwide based on downloads.
(Source: See 6 below)
Demographics of Facebook users
- Facebook users are 54% female and 46% male.
- Of all the people on the internet, 83% of Women & 75% of Men use Facebook.
- Average Facebook user has 155 “friends”.
- Around seven-in-ten U.S. adults (69%) use Facebook.
- 62% of online Seniors aged 65+ are on Facebook and 72% are between age 50-64.
- 88% of online users of age 18-29 are on Facebook, 84% of those 30-49.
- 82% of college graduates are on Facebook.
- 75% of online users of income more than $75K are on Facebook.
- Almost 90% of Facebook’s Daily Active Users Come from Outside the US/Canada.
- The largest population on Facebook is from India with over 270 million users followed by 190 million from the US.
- Brazil and Indonesia both have around 120 million users.
- Monthly Active Users from Asia are 1,013,000.
- Europe has 387 million Facebook users.
- 96% of Facebook users accessed via mobile devices.
Facebook Advertising Statistics
- Facebook has over 7 million advertisers.
- 93% of marketers use Facebook advertising regularly.
- Images account for 75-90% of Facebook advertising effectivity/performance.
- 20% of Facebook’s mobile ad revenue comes from Instagram.
- The Average CPC for Facebook Ads Is $1.86, Average CTR is 0.9%, and Average CPM is $11.20.
- Facebook’s share in the global digital advertising market is 19.7%.
- Facebook’s potential reach of advertising is 1.9 billion.
Other relevant Facebook statistics:
Facebook – Government Requests Report: Facebook shares information about the requests they receive from governments around the world and their approach to handling them.
First Facebook Data Center: In mid-2011, a small team of Facebook engineers started tackling the big challenge of scaling the Facebook computing infrastructure in the most efficient and economical way possible. Working out of an electronics lab in the basement of the Palo Alto, California headquarters, the team designed the first FB data center from the ground up. A few months later Facebook started building it in Prineville, Oregon.
All About Facebook Live: Live is the best way to interact with Facebook viewers in real time. Field their burning questions, hear what’s on their mind and check out their Live Reactions to gauge how your broadcast is going.
Facebook, Twitter Play Different Roles in Connecting Mobile Users to News: Facebook sends by far the most mobile readers to news sites of any social media site, while Twitter mobile users spend more engaged time with news content, according to the Pew Research Center.
Social Media Marketing: The history of Facebook’s evolution from a student website into a huge network spreading across the globe
Source 1: Statista; Source 2: Statista; Source 3: Statista; Source 4: Statista; Source 5: Statista; Source 6: Statista
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