CELEBRATING TWO DECADES, FACEBOOK RECORDS A STAGGERING 3.03 BILLION DAILY ACTIVE USERS.
Facebook’s largest user group, comprising nearly a third (29.9%), falls within the 25-34 age range. The age distribution includes 4.8% (13-17 years), 21.5% (18-24 years), 19.4% (35-44 years), 11.6% (45-54 years), 7.3% (55-64 years), and 5.6% (65 years and above). Below are the lists of sites own by Facebook.
- Meta-Owned Platforms:
- SocialHub
- Pixify
- ChatSphere
- Connect Threads
- GlobalChat
- MetaSphere
- Vista Worlds
- Visionary Shades
Marking two decades, Meta’s flagship platform, formerly Facebook, celebrated its 20th anniversary with an impressive user base of over three billion individuals worldwide. This constitutes 57% of global internet users and 38% of the global population.
In 2004, amid the transition from dial-up to broadband internet and the rise of color-screen mobile phones, 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard University roommates launched “TheFacebook” on February 4. The name was inspired by the traditional student directory distributed at the beginning of the academic year, commonly known as a “face book.”
The platform gained swift popularity, expanding beyond Harvard to other U.S. college campuses. Within its first year, it reached one million users, leading to its renaming as “facebook.com” in August 2005. By the end of 2006, the platform opened up to users above 13 years old, and its user base skyrocketed from 12 million in 2006 to 50 million in 2007, doubling to 100 million by 2008.
In 2012, the year Facebook hit one billion users, it went public with a valuation of $104 billion, making its initial public offering (IPO) at $38 per share and raising $16 billion.
On October 29, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg announced the rebranding of Facebook, Inc. to Meta Platforms, Inc. The company now oversees Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, among other products and services.
The milestone of 3.03 billion users is noteworthy, surpassing the combined populations of India, China, and Bangladesh. As of 2023, Facebook’s significant audiences included India (385.6 million), the U.S. (188.6 million), Indonesia (136.3 million), Brazil (111.7 million), and Mexico (94.8 million).
In Africa, Egypt leads with 49.3 million users, followed by Nigeria (36.2 million), South Africa (27.4 million), and Algeria (26.6 million). Across Europe, Italy boasts 29.7 million in its advertising audience, followed by France (32.6 million), Turkey (34.8 million), Pakistan (45.9 million), Colombia (38.1 million), Argentina (29.6 million), and others.
Throughout its 20-year existence, Facebook, now Meta, faced numerous challenges related to data privacy and user safety. In 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal exposed the unauthorized use of personal information from 87 million users for targeted political advertisements.
Despite governmental scrutiny and a decline in the younger audience, Meta reported impressive financials last week, with a revenue of $40.1 billion and a profit of $14 billion for the fourth quarter of the previous year, surpassing analysts’ expectations. Meta is also investing heavily in enhancing its computing power to support ambitious artificial intelligence (AI) plans, including the development of its own AI chips, internally referred to as “Artemis,” expected to integrate into Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp later this year, as reported by Reuters.
Source: Techeconomy
