Social networking site Facebook welcomes its 200-millionth user

09 Apr 2009

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Just a few months after its fifth anniversary, Facebook Inc. yesterday reportedly welcomed its 200 millionth user.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post yesterday morning that the social networking site was on track to welcome its 200-millionth user before the day is out. To celebrate, the company has hooked up with 16 charities and advocacy groups that have created virtual gifts that users can buy for one another. Zuckerberg noted that 90 to 95 per cent of the proceeds go to the charities, with the rest going toward administrative costs. None of it, he added, goes to Facebook.

"More broadly, technology has made it easier and faster for people across the world to share more and more - from the daily activities of their lives to events that impact their communities," wrote Zuckerberg. "At Facebook, we want to build the best service in the world for people to connect with and share everything that is important to them, whether day-to-day or world-changing."

Facebook, which celebrated its fifth anniversary on 4 February, has stormed past rival MySpace.com, the pioneer of the social networking phenomenon, in monthly page-view counts. Facebook, once thought of as the up-and-coming social network, had almost 222 million unique visitors in December, while MySpace had 125 million.

"Growing rapidly to 200 million users is a really good start, but we've always known that in order for Facebook to help people represent everything that is happening in their world, everyone needs to have a voice," wrote Zuckerberg. "Creating channels between people who want to work together towards change has always been one of the ways that social movements push the world forward and make it better."

Zuckerberg pointed out that it took 20,000 years for the world population to get to 200 million people. For Facebook, it was just under 5 years. In January, Facebook's community was at 150 million, and grew to 175 million in February. To put things in perspective, 200 million is more than the combined populations of Russia, Brazil and Japan.

This proves the exploding popularity of the Internet in general and social networking sites in particular. Only last month, video-sharing site YouTube had notched up the 100 million user mark. (See: YouTube crosses the 100 million user mark in January)

As part of the celebration, Zuckerberg also announced the creation of the Facebook for Good space on the site. The page, which already has more than 600 fans, was designed as a place where people can share stories of how the social networking site has helped them reconnect with people, give back to their community or make a contribution.

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