The Growth of Facebook: Facebook is a social networking service that enables its users to make virtual connections with others. It could be people they already know or otherwise.
Facebook users can add up to any number of people that know or are friends of their friends. People can exchange media, ideas, and perspectives and all without a charge.
Facebook has over a billion daily active users. The number of active users is not constant as It increases day after day. As of the year 2022, how many active users does Facebook have? How many people use the social media app a day?
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If you are reading this article, then you must be curious. You might need these answers for your business or personal use. Follow this article to get answers to your questions.
The history of Facebook
The journey with Facebook began on February 4, 2004. Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg launched it, and the idea was borne out of his first website, FaceMash.
FaceMash was a website that allowed Harvard students to vote.
At the inception of Facebook, over a hundred people signed up. On the morning of February 4, he and his roommates watched as 1,200 to 1,500 of their fellow students joined their site.
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This was within the first 24 hours of its existence, then Facebook quickly spread to other Boston-area institutes. It also spread to the rest of the Ivy League that spring.
By the year’s end, Facebook had 1 million users. As an angel investor, Peter Thiel committed $500,000 to Facebook’s progress. After that, Zuckerberg left Harvard to run the company out of Golden State.
In no time, Facebook grew to become one of the most influential companies in the history of the internet. Hence, the beginning of the rise of Facebook users.
Facebook Growth: Facebook in the year 2005
Facebook paid $200,000 in 2005 for the rights to the domain name facebook.com. For that reason, the firm changed its name from “The Facebook” to “Facebook.”
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In October of that year, Facebook launched in the United Kingdom. Up to 23 other institutions across the globe also welcomed the launch of the social media “Facebook” across the globe.
Facebook did not limit its social media platform to just higher institution students, the company went further to introduce the social networking platform to high schools.
That same year employees from a wider range of groups joined Facebook. Apple Inc. and Microsoft became members of Facebook at that time.
Facebook expanded to include institutions in Australia and New Zealand in December 2005. This increased its user base to over 2,000 colleges and 25,000 high schools. The United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland were part.
There were also several brand-new additions which includes “News Feed and Wall”. At the end of 2005, there were 6 million active Facebook members.
Facebook Growth: Users in 2006
Just a few significant things happened to Facebook that year. The Facebook growth was based on the little development and the 2005 features. But, fast forward to the year 2006, April, Facebook launched the mobile version of their social media platform.
Anyone with an internet connection could now gain access to the social networking platform in the month of September 2006. In addition, Facebook placed an age restriction on its platform.
You have to be at least 13 years old to use the website. At the end of 2006, Facebook members grew to 12 million.
Facebook Growth: 2007’s Rapid Growth
At the beginning of 2007, Facebook recorded 20 million users. In addition to attracting people, Facebook started attracting businesses. Over a hundred thousand businesses set up shop on Facebook that year.
It was a prime location to reach out to clients and share information. Business pages later became an intended feature, and by the end of 2007, the site registered over 100,000 business pages.
Because of Facebook’s ease of use and benefiting features, Facebook experienced a boost. Its users increased from 20 million to 50 million before the year ran out.
Facebook Growth: Multiple Users in 2008
In 2008, Zuckerberg ended a lawsuit against the site. The lawsuit came six days after Facebook’s launch. Three Harvard seniors claim Mark had deceived them.
Harvardconnection.com which Mark built with them was not their agreement, instead it was was social network which Mark built and called Facebook.
In February, he paid the Winklevoss twins $65 million in cash. Hence, ending their lawsuit against the company.
In July, the platform’s iOS mobile app became available. In quick succession, Facebook began including new functions on its website and mobile app.
Such features include the ability to send and receive instant messages. Creating and managing Facebook Pages was another feature. Lastly, users could share videos and run Facebook Ads.
Facebook announced its decision to locate its global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, in October 2008. At the ending of the year of 2008, Facebook’s active users amount to 100 million.
Facebook Growth: Challenge-led Growth in 2009
The global acceptance of Facebook came in the year 2009. The like button seen on Facebook was introduced to the platform in 2009.
Mark Zuckerberg announced the company reaching150 million users in January, and by the end of 2009, the company recorded more than 350 million users.
Facebook also faced the most challenges that year. The main challenge is user privacy management which was in light of its rapid expansion and because of the Vast amounts of sensitive data that are being stored in its database.
The personal information of millions of Facebook users became exposed after the company’s series of adjustment back in 2009.
As a result of that, the social media platform went under review by managing agencies and advocacy parties. It spent $9.5m (£5.9m) to settle a lawsuit that same year.
The lawsuit was over an intrusive advertising system that had started in 2007.
Facebook Growth: 2010 New Features
In 2010, Facebook started inviting users to become beta testers. That is if they passed a question-and-answer-based screening process. A Series of Facebook Engineering tasks were also included.
Any users that could fix Facebook computer-based issues gets a chance to be employed. In July 2010, Facebook had over 500 million monthly active users.
As a result of the approval of the “Like” button, Facebook underwent several revisions. Images, comments, and the homepage’s ability to be “liked” by other users were all enhanced as a result.
Furthermore, Facebook also introduced features like the Facebook Locations, Groups, Timelines, and Video calling. As of November, it became the third-largest web company.
Before the year ran out, the web’s users grew from 500 million to 608 million.
Facebook Growth: Facebook Messenger in 2011
Facebook ended 2011 with 845 million users fo which Pixable earlier predicted the drive behind this in February. Pixable is a Facebook software and online photo collector.
The social networking service had 100 billion photos by the summer of that year.
Over 33% of all Facebook traffic as of October 2011 came from mobile devices. Over 350 million users accessed the site via mobile phones. Also, Its instant messaging program, Facebook Messenger, was released back in August 2011.
Facebook Growth: 955 Million Users in 2012
For Facebook, the year 2012 is a definition of ups and down because the company recorded several achievements. At the same time, they faced some challenges.
The photo-sharing app Instagram was purchased by Facebook for $1 billion in 2012. After that, the social media giant went public. Facebook’s IPO took place in May 2012. The company was able to raise $16 billion on the first day.
In addition, by year’s end, the corporation had surpassed yet another significant benchmark. This time, Facebook had close to a billion active users on the platform.
On the dark side, Yahoo! sued Facebook in a U.S. federal court on March 12, 2012. That was weeks before Facebook’s IPO began trading. The lawsuit claimed that the social networking site violated eleven of its patents.
It was related to advertising, privacy settings, and social gatherings. That same year, Facebook App Center was launched (2012).
It was a web-based mobile market. In the beginning, 500 Facebook apps were available in the marketplace of which most of the apps were games.
Facebook Growth: 170 million Increase in 2013
As of 2013, Facebook had 1.4 billion monthly active users worldwide. This was an increase of 170 million from the previous year, getting Facebook listed in the Fortune 500 list in 2013, indicating the company’s growing prominence.
In the same year, Instagram added new potential. It includes the connection of Facebook to Instagram.
Facebook Growth: 2014 Marked 10 Years of Launch
Facebook celebrated its 10th-year tide in 2014 by purchasing WhatsApp, Oculus, and Atlas. In addition to that, the company rolled out a new feature in the same year.
It was named F.B. Newswire on April 24, 2014. Due to the few activities, 1.34 billion users ended the year.
Facebook Growth: 4 Years of Growth 2015 – 2018
More than 40 million local businesses had Facebook pages in 2015. They released Facebook Dating in May of this year. The idea for Facebook Marketplace began at that time. Facebook introduced a set of “Reactions” that year, letting users choose from a variety of emojis.
Lastly, Facebook created a separate version for Android and iOS called Facebook Lite. The new version consumes less data than the original Facebook app. Facebook Zero is another initiative which allows users to access a text-only version of Facebook on their mobile devices for free.
The corporation has long been at the center of lawsuits and accusations. During that period, Facebook was the recipient of both anger and trouble. It came right after its meteoric rise to fame and financial success.
In 2016, it came under fire for spreading false information. So the company promised to enhance its platform’s algorithm. It added a new function that allowed people to Flag fraudulent content.
However, the measure proved ineffective. Despite its best efforts, Facebook continued to receive allegations. In 2017, it was alleged that content on the platform includes abusive or harassing behavior and hate speech.
The corporation recognized the need for more stringent controls after these incidents. The problems persisted in 2018 when a big data breach occurred. It involved a British consulting business called Cambridge Analytica (C.A.). Cambridge Analytica (C.A.) was able to harvest the personal information of about 87 million users.
Trump’s campaign used this data to help him in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook paid a punishment fee of £500,000 to the U.K.’s Information Commissioner’s Office. As of the end of 2018, Facebook has nothing less than 2.23 billion active users.
Facebook Growth: 2.50 Billion in 2019 Despite Fines
Throughout 2019, Facebook settled multiple government fines. Despite the fines, Facebook’s fourth-quarter revenue was better than expected. Though the company’s share price was hurt by sluggish profit growth. Facebook now boasted 1.44 billion daily active users that same year.
Sales for Facebook also totaled $21.08 billion. This is an increase of 25% year over year. The company earned $2.56 per share.
Another significant security compromise occurred as the year came to a close. Forbes revealed in December that the contact information for over 267 million Facebook users was compromised.
Facebook Growth: 2020’s Fake Users
Facebook predicts that 135 million of its users are fake. The company records 2.7 billion users that year. There are 5% of its 2.7 billion monthly active users as phony profiles. The company says it deletes 7.7 million false profiles every day.
The year 2020 saw the introduction of various enhancements to the company’s businesses. According to the new policy, Facebook can access WhatsApp users’ personal information.
Facebook Growth: Facebook as Meta – 2021
It is no surprise that 2020 fake users affected Facebook users in 2021. A global outage of Facebook in 2021 cost the company $6 billion. This caused some people to look elsewhere.
Nonetheless, on June 28, 2021, Facebook’s market cap reached a record high of $1 trillion.
Facebook was rebranded as Meta in October 2021. Its focus is on helping to construct the met averse. It is Facebook’s last-ditch effort to separate itself from its negative reputation.
As of 2021, Facebook had 2.85 billion active users each month. There are 2.11 billion people that could see your Facebook ad. This makes it the largest social media platform in the world.
Facebook Growth: 2022 – The Present Year
The most recent investor earnings report reveals set back for Facebook. Facebook’s monthly active users have experienced a decline. Monthly Facebook users dropped by over 2 million.
Despite that fact, Facebook’s growth is not stagnant. Facebook remains the world’s most popular social media platform in 2022. As of July, 2.93 billion monthly active users were recorded. According to the most recent statistics, 36.8 percent of the world uses Facebook.
Facebook Growth: FAQ
How many people use Facebook daily? 1.968 billion people
What is the number of Facebook monthly active users? 2.934 billion people
Is there still an age restriction on Facebook use? Yes, Facebook users must be over the age of 13
Which country has the highest number of Facebook users? India, with over 400 million active Facebook users.
Is Facebook losing its fame? Yes, there is a drop in the percentage of users.
Which country has the lowest Facebook usage? Eritrea has the least record of participation.
What you should know about Facebook’s growth
Facebook took over the globe in a gradual process over the years. It is a hugely successful business. It is also a significant cultural force in the first few years of the twenty-first century.
Facebook was one of the driving forces for an internet presence. It ushered the internet into the user-generated content era. The era is sometimes referred to as “Web 2.0.”.
Facebook was the social media site for a generation of internet users. Older users adopted it as it transformed from exclusive to universal.
Facebook has been criticized for several reasons. However, Facebook remains unchallenged as the top social media platform. It has over half of the market share. It also has the lion’s share of advertising revenue.