The social networking company reaches one billion users, growing 45 million since last June
Facebook Inc. announced Thursday that it has reached one billion monthly users last month. The company hit 1 billion on Sept. 14 at 12:45 p.m. pacific time. The site is up 45 million users since June, and where it took six years to gain the 500 million users in 2010, it took less than two to double it.
“This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Timeline. “Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.”
With a billion users, Facebook now connects every 7th person in the world. The social networking site began in a college dormroom at Harvard University and first claimed fame in North America, but now can boast most of its growth abroad. Less than 20% of Facebook users are American or Canadian. While that 20% of Facebook users accounts for 48% of advertising revenue, countries in Asia and South America are seeing rapid growth of Facebook interaction.
When discussing the company’s income, Matt Lauer of NBC’s Today asked creator and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg why Facebook wasn’t “killing it” even at one billion users, reported the Chicago Tribune. Zuckerberg responded with, “I think it depends on your definition of ‘killing it.’ I mean we are making billions of dollars.”
Billions of dollars and a little over a billion users put Facebook shares at $22.23 on Thursday.
