Facebook Officially Reaches 500 Million Active Users
July 22, 2010
Facebook announced this week that it reached 500 million active users. If there were any doubt who is king of the social media world, this should erase it. With more users than the population of the United States (I find myself asking, “Is everyone on Facebook now?”), Facebook has certainly surpassed its humble beginnings. Let’s note that the milestone is active users. The figure is not including people who have signed up for an account and used it for only a few weeks; it’s counting the number of people who repeatedly use Facebook as a part of their everyday lives.
To mark this incredible achievement, the CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new application called Facebook Stories. This new app will feature stories about how Facebook has directly changed people’s lives. You can share a story about how Facebook helped a cause you care about through grassroots movement, or how you found your long lost love.
Starting as a side project in college, Mark Zuckerberg has grown his hobby into a billion dollar empire. Everywhere I look, I see references to Facebook in film, TV, and now there is even a movie detailing the rise of this social behemoth, The Social Network. The tagline “You don’t get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies” is intriguing, and I definitely will be watching this movie when it comes out. Obviously, it is going to be dramatized, but it might show some insight into the story that is not widely known. I’ll post a review here when the movie comes out in October of this year.
