Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Announces Billion Users Milestone

Facebook Hits Billion Users Milestone
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Facebook now has a billion users.

The company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement on his own site on Thursday morning.

The milestone comes less than nine years after the site launched in February 2004.

It took Facebook about six years to gain its first 500 million users - and two years to double that number.

It is now the most visited website in the world, and has annual revenues of more than $3 billion.

Announcing the news on a post which itself now has more than 210,000 'likes', Zuckerberg said:

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

If you're reading this: thank you for giving me and my little team the honor of serving you.

Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.

I am committed to working every day to make Facebook better for you, and hopefully together one day we will be able to connect the rest of the world too.

In a press release, Facebook said that since its launch it had also racked up:

  • 1.13 trillion Likes
  • 140.3 billion friend connections
  • 219 billion photos shared
  • 17 billion check-ins
  • 62.6 million songs have been played 22 billion times that's about 210,000 years of music
  • 2.45 billion content items and 2.7 billion Likes are shared every day on Facebook.
  • More than 300 million photos uploaded daily.

The average user of Facebook is 22 years old, the company said.

But unfortunately for Facebook, the news appeared not to boost the confidence of investors, who continue to value the company far lower than the $38 per share price seen at its IPO earlier this year.

Shares in the company fell by about 2% to $21.83 on Thursday, as questions remain about the network's ability to boost revenues and codify its mobile strategy.

More than $8 billion (£5bn) has been wiped of Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerburg's net worth as a result.

Facebook is also facing challenges in markets such as China and Russia, where strong local competitors are proving more than a match for the original 'Social Network'.

Zuckerberg travelled to Moscow earlier this week to meet with Prime Minister Dimitri Medvedev, and discuss new investments in the region.

Meanwhile the social network has also recently announced the launch of a new 'Gifts' service, which will let users send real-world products to their friends.

Facebook Gifts has had a limited launch in the US and will be available to other users in the coming weeks.