Facebook Reaches 1 Billion Active Users

[engine]

That's quite a milestone. Is it also a marketing person's dream?

This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month.

Facebook Reaches 1 Billion Active Users [newsroom.fb.com]

[chicagohh]

This, on the heels of FB's announcement that clicks are not as important as brand visibility - or something like that. Anything to take the attention off the face that most industries struggle to link conversions to FB Ad spend.

99 percent of sales generated from online branding ad campaigns were from people that saw, but did not interact with, ads— proof that it is the delivery of the marketing message to the right consumer, not the click, that creates real value for brand advertisers.

FB then goes on to compare their Ad model to television.

[londrum]

The population of the entire world is only a shade over 7 billion, and they are claiming that 1 in 7 are using facebook? once you've discounted everyone who is either too young or too old, you are probably left with two-thirds of that (i dont know the exact percentages), so every fourth or fifth person on the planet has to be signed up and actively using it, according to them. they are living in fairyland, if they think that is true.

[Leosghost]

if they think that is true.

They don't..not for a minute...but they would dearly like others to think that it is ..at least until Mark and the rest can offload their remaining shares later this month..

[chicagohh]

They have to make these eye-popping claims to make an advertising model work that is based upon impressions, brand awareness and mind share.

[engine]

Allowing for a percentage of spammers, say, 10- 15%, it's still quite possible for such big numbers.

Why not?

Have a read of the interview Mark Zuckerberg gave to Bloomberg.

[businessweek.com...]

[edited by: engine at 3:26 pm (utc) on Oct 4, 2012]

[bhonda]

Timing is everything.

They don't..not for a minute

Absolutely.

The 1 billion 'fact sheet' puzzles me somewhat. It's interesting to see the basic stats for each milestone over the last few years, but reads like the hurried scribbles of a guy on the way to a marketing meeting to try to sell something.

What gives it away for me is that the 1 in 7 statistic isn't being thrown around more. If you were really happy with how things have gone, surely you'd mention that. I know I would. Unless I knew that I hadn't really hit 1 in 7, or even come close.

All in all, an impressive number, but not much else.

[brotherhood of LAN]

It works out to about 25% share in each of Europe, North America and Asia, with the remaining 25% for the rest of the world.

The BBC mentions Mr Z visiting Russia in face of competition from more local social networks.

"The competition in this region comes from the likes of VKontakte, which is far in the lead with an estimated userbase of almost 300 million. [bbc.co.uk...] "

Which made me smile, as Russia's population is 140M so I can only assume the site is popular outside Russia too.

Fake profiles aside, it's still undeniable that hundreds of millions of people use Facebook and fake accounts can surely not count for more than a quarter of the total.

[GodLikeLotus]

I was talking to [Facebook board member] Marc Andreessen about this and he said the only two companies that he thought of that had a billion customers are Coca-Cola (KO) and McDonald’s (MCD).

The big difference is that their customers PAY for the products.

My new company Oxygen.Inc has over 7 billion users worldwide, just trying to figure out how to monetize it.

[SevenCubed]

A couple weeks back I wanted to get a better handle on the facebook's concept of "users vs accounts". I selected a large multinational consumer products company that has 19 highly popular brands under it's umbrella. I don't have an account there and not sure how it all works because sometimes I can see user details but sometimes not without logging in. Anyway I was able to see all their brands pages. So here's my question. If one parent company has 19 brands that they promote separately does facebook count that as 19 different users (actually 20 if parent company included)?

The following isn't a fictional example, it's a real world company.

Would the following be considered as 1 user with 19 sub-products...

facebook.com/parent-company/brand-1/, facebook.com/parent-company/brand-2/, facebook.com/parent-company/brand-3/, facebook.com/parent-company/brand-4/, facebook.com/parent-company/brand-5/, ... facebook.com/parent-company/brand-19/

VS

Whereas this would be considered as 20 separate users...?

facebook.com/parent-company/
facebook.com/brand-1/
facebook.com/brand-2/
facebook.com/brand-3/
facebook.com/brand-4/
facebook.com/brand-5/
...
facebook.com/brand-19/

[Leosghost]

Whereas this would be considered as 20 separate users...?

facebook.com/parent-company/
facebook.com/brand-1/
facebook.com/brand-2/
facebook.com/brand-3/
facebook.com/brand-4/
facebook.com/brand-5/
...
facebook.com/brand-19/

In facebook terms that is 20 different users..

Same way family with 2 parents and 5 kids , 2 dogs and one cat..Mom and Dad each have their page = 2 users
kids have a page each ( even the under 13s and the newborn baby ) = 5 users..

kids make joke pages for the dogs and cats.= 3 users

=10 users

almost all this sample family's friends do the same..some families even have all of the above..and a "family page"..for the friends and grandparents to visit..

Grandparents have their own page(s)..and so on..

Mark knows this..

"active"= logged in at least once during previous year ( I think it was 12 months, could be 6 months, could be 3 months* ) ..

I have an account for each company I have / brand / domain I want to protect..

I have nearly 250 accounts..I log in to each once every 3 months ..just in case* to protect my "names"..

[edited by: Leosghost at 4:11 pm (utc) on Oct 4, 2012]

[bhonda]

Just thought, is that US billion or UK billion?

1,000,000,000 or 1,000,000,000,000?

I'm assuming US billion, but thought I'd just check!

[Leosghost]

Mark says.."depends if you are holding your credit card when you ask that question, and if your broker is on the line"..

[SevenCubed]

Ok so now that's clarified. The example I used above is using the structure of the second example...

facebook.com/parent-company/
facebook.com/brand-1/
facebook.com/brand-2/
facebook.com/brand-3/
facebook.com/brand-4/
facebook.com/brand-5/
...
facebook.com/brand-19/

So that is counted as 20 users but in fact only 1 real account and 19 fake ones (numbers wise even though they are real brands). It is in fact probably only one real user at multibrand-X managing their social stuff -- 2 eyes, not 40 eyes.

So from there I looked at the likes hanging out in the right hand column. All the visible ones without expanding the list were from advertising agencies. I think it's safe to presume that if you are the advertising agency handling the multibrand advertising accounts your employees must "like" each brand by default, no fussing about it, just do it.

Now lets take into consideration that there are MANY MANY companies structuring their products this way. That's surely going to knock down the number of realistic users.

Now lets also bring londrum's valid points into the equation as well as Leosghost's -- that shaves off many more real accounts.

Add to that the exodus of younger people that have been pointed out in other threads recently and what do you really have left?

Marketers and marketers trying to sell to their products to each other and their associated agencies. Is it no wonder that facebook advertising sucks -- there are relatively few REAL eyes. And for the real ones that are there, they are blind to ads because their intention is to catch up on things with friends and family.

1,000,000,000 -- yeah right -- probably half of that at best and that's being generous. Keep weaving your lies facebook, you are going to catch yourself in your own web.

I'm looking forward to the day when a distributed peer-to-peer social network comes into effect -- something like Diaspora. I might even join in when that happens.

[Digmen1]

The naysayers just can't accept that Facebook keeps growing.
And as I have said on other threads Facebook will soon overtake Google as the number one site in the world.

And if many of you are like me, I often use Google to get to a website eg I find it easier to type ebay into Google than to go to a bookmark.

[StoutFiles]

The naysayers just can't accept that Facebook keeps growing.
And as I have said on other threads Facebook will soon overtake Google as the number one site in the world.

No one is doubting that. They don't make the money Google does, though. They don't make the money a lot of companies make. What good is a billion users if you can't make money off of them?

[Kufu]

What good is a billion users if you can't make money off of them?

I wish people would understand this.

I have a fan page on Google that has 1.3 million likes. I am lucky if I can make $100/mo from the traffic I am able to generate from that total.

When Facebook says 'active' they mean a user who logs in at least once per month. I've never heard anyone say that they are an 'active' anything if they are doing it once per month.

[Digmen1]

Yes of course FB need to start leaveraging all those users into some cash generation so they can run the business at a profit instead of replying on venture capital.

That is going to be the hard part as advertisers cannot spend anymore as they only have limited advertising slots.
And they will struggle to fit advertising on mobiles (where most of their users are)

So I think that over the next year or so we will see small charges introduced for this or that service.

[viral]

Not many of us Believe they have 1 billion REAL users, But hey Google says they have 100 million G+ users I doubt they got 10 million who are active and I think I am being generous. So in relative terms they are still BY FAR the biggest social network on the planet. Ignore FB at your peril.

[hal12b]

What's "active"? My dog has an account I set up 3 years ago.
Is this just hype n attempt to pump up its stock?

[Clarence]

Sorry to burst some conspiracy theory bubbles, but yes Facebook actually has 1 billion "REAL" active members using the site each month. And that's taking into consideration double accounts, business accounts and spam accounts. That's 1 billion real people using Facebook on average of once a month.

Yes it sounds un realistic, but it is true.

There are over 1 Billion internet user in Asia alone, and 1/2 Billion user in Europe Alone.

Asia 1 Billion Users
Europe 500 Million Users
North America (Mexico, American, Canada) 273 Million
Latin American 235 Million Users

That's 2 Billion users and half of them DO use Facebook.

I'm sorry if you personally don't use it, or you personally don't like it, but it is the truth.

Sorry!

[Clarence]

[qoute]And as I have said on other threads Facebook will soon overtake Google as the number one site in the world. [/qoute]

Already happened. In terms of page views Facebook over took Google years ago. The difference comes from how they choose to rank traffic. Impression wise Facebook generate 100 times more impression then Google.

More content is consumed on Facebook in 1 day then on Google in a year. Remember Google is a Search Engine! It pass traffic to other websites, it's not a destination. Facebook is a destination where user stay logged on, and it's a mobile app where users are literally Connected 24 hours a day. 1 person can easily generate 100-200 Page Impressions a day, and upload 10-20 pieces of content A DAY!

[Leosghost]

Of course there are..

Ps.. you forgot Africa..:) and Pacifica ( you know Australia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Polynesia etc )

Oh and Indonesia..and all of the Middle East ..

They all have bridges for sale too...:)

So do I ..you are obviously in the market for one..mine is going cheap..I'll do you a real good deal :)

[jecasc]

What I spend on advertising:

Google: 40,000 EUR/year
Facebook: 0 EUR

There is definetly something wrong with Facebooks business model. When Google started Adwords it took not more than a few minutes to convince me to sign up. I started using it on day one. I still don't see why I should spend a single euro on facebook ads.

[Clarence]

Google: 40,000 EUR/year
Facebook: 0 EUR

There is definetly something wrong with Facebooks business model. When Google started Adwords it took not more than a few minutes to convince me to sign up. I started using it on day one. I still don't see why I should spend a single euro on facebook ads.

Mine is the opposite. I spend a tons on Facebook, and little on Google.

[Leosghost]

I spend a tons on Facebook,

Presumably buying shares at their IPO..:) $$38.00

They fell again, today 05.10.2012 $20.91 -$1.04 (-4.73 %)

Google by contrast, today 05.10.2012 $767.65 -$0.40 (-0.05% )

[edited by: Leosghost at 9:01 pm (utc) on Oct 5, 2012]

[SevenCubed]

@Clarence

Sorry to burst some conspiracy theory bubbles, but yes Facebook actually has 1 billion "REAL" active members using the site each month. And that's taking into consideration double accounts, business accounts and spam accounts. That's 1 billion real people using Facebook on average of once a month.

Yes it sounds un realistic, but it is true.

That statement is very bold and carries a very strong opinion and tone. If it's as accurate as you claim then you must have insider information that the public doesn't have access to? Would you care to disclose it? Otherwise it's just another opinion such as the other ones here including my own and I very seriously doubt it's validity.

Would you like to point out specifically what you see here as a conspiracy theory so whoever you are implicating in your comment can respond accordingly?

But maybe you should first lookup the definition so that you can learn to recognize legitimate debate vs conspiracy theory. If you are referring to my comments in general one doesn't have to stretch their imagination to recognize the validity in what I'm saying -- it can be verified independently outside of my own opinion.

As for me not liking facebook -- it's not a question of not liking liking them (ok except for the one time I referred to MZ as Emperor Nero) it's a matter of not liking their exploitation of individuals and small business people. So in that sense yes I have a moral responsibility to put into writing what is really going on so that if small business people doing research on the effectiveness of facebook advertising come across this forum post they can get some insight from sources other than the hyped up stuff. That will equip them to make an informed decision about facebook advertising and potentially save them some grief. As for young people being exploited they have no idea yet how oftentimes remarks they posted in facebook during times of frustration are going to come back to haunt them many years from now when out looking for work.

Facebook is poison, ummmmmmm, just my humble opinion of course.

[viral]

@jecasc

I spend advertising revenue on both Google and Facebook. At first Google was a lot better but once you understand how Facebook ads work and how you need to structure them. I now spend a lot more at Facebook than google.

I like that people like you don't spend money at Facebook. Means it is cheaper for me.

[Digmen1]

I find that any post I make on forums often comes up on Google.

So its really just a questions of watching what you say anywhere on the internet.

[SevenCubed]

So its really just a questions of watching what you say anywhere on the internet.

Many places on the internet allow you to be anonymous if you chose. You cannot be anonymous on facebook. Oh wait a minute you can! Just create a separate account for each of your alter-egos. There's 5 more fake accounts that cannot be detected.