Facebook Eclipses 900 Million Users

The number of Facebook accounts is almost equal to the entire population of Africa. In fact, it's about the same as one-seventh of the entire global population. Of course, not all of those people actually log on to the social networking site on a regular basis, but around 60% of them are in fact checking in to Facebook each and every day. That's a retention rate that sites with 1/100 that volume of users pray for. In other words, believe it or not, there is still room for the site to grow.

Facebook has not reached that point of diminishing returns yet. Eventually, the number of people signing up for an account will have to taper off because, well, there won't be that many people left. When you factor in that only users over the age of 13 are able to join Facebook, the penetration rate around the world is even higher. These updated numbers come from new documents that the site has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its initial public offering.

In the filing, Facebook said, "We believe that we are at the forefront of enabling faster, easier, and richer communication between people and that Facebook has become an integral part of many of our users' daily lives. We have experienced rapid growth in the number of users and their engagement." Facebook said that a whopping 488 million users are logging in on a daily basis from a mobile device. It has pioneered social communication in the mobile world. Can one billion users be far behind?

[via VentureBeat]