What Does Having 500,000,000 Users Really Mean?

For all those paying attention, we saw Facebook make history yet again. This last week, the social networking website hit a new high by being the first social network to hit half of a billion users. I have to say, that’s pretty impressive.

How could it not be? CEO Mark Zuckerberg needed just over half a decade to create something that by population would be the 3^rd largest country in the world. What an accomplishment. I have to stand up and simply say “bravo!”

But now I find myself sitting down. Questioning, exploring and digging deeper into the situation. Social networking and the whole social media phenomenon is hardly an exact science. And there are few who can truly understand and grasp all that is going on.

Yet, we find ourselves with thousands of people proclaiming themselves as social media “experts” and better yet, “gurus.” Don’t get me wrong. These “gurus” know a thing or two. The theories and concepts behind it are only half of the story. Being able to truly understand the numbers is something else.

With 500,000,000 users, Facebook is at the top of the mountain. They are the big player here. But what does it really mean to have a half of a billion users? The number itself can be mystifying and overpowering. So we’re going to break it down. Here is what 500,000,000 users can be broken down in to:

Twitter is known for having 60% of its users come from outside the US. Facebook, on the other hand, has 74% of its users coming from outside the US.
The US represents approximately 26% of Facebook users. While the United Kingdom at approx. 5.4%, Indonesia at 5.2%, Turkey at 4.6% and France 3.9% rounding off the top 5 countries by users.
The US represents the #1 nation by users at 128,936,800. A distant 2^nd is the United Kingdom at 27,020,020.
Out of 187 countries that have Facebook users, 74 countries having 100,000 users or less; 54 have between 100,000 – 1,000,000 users; 45 have between 1– 10 million users; 10 have between 10-20 million users; and 3 have between 22-27 million users.
66% of all Facebook users come from North America and Europe.
The top 20 countries with most users make up approx. 76% of all Facebook users. While countries #2 to #20 make up 50% and the remaining 167 countries make up 24%.
Of the 10 most populated countries in the world, which account for approx. just over 4 billion people, Facebook users only account for approx. 4.5% penetration of this population (although the US. makes up approx. 72% of the 4.5%)
Equally, of these 10 countries China, India, Brazil and Russia have their own distinct social networking websites.

China: Qzone – 388 million users; 51.com – 160 mil. users; Renren – 120 mil. users; Kaixin001 – 75 mil. users.
Russia: VKontakte – 81.5 mil. users.
Brazil and India: Orkut – 100 mil. users.

Other notable social networking websites include:

MySpace – 130 million users.
Twitter – 105 mil.
Friendster – 90 mil.
hi5 – 80 mil.
LinkedIn – 70 mil.
Badoo – 69 mil.
Netlog – 65 mil.
Bedo – 40 mil.
Mixi – 30 mil.
Cyworld – 24 mil.

(These are just a few of the major social networking websites that exist around the world besides Facebook. A few of what is easily hundreds of websites targeted at a countless number of demographics.)

I’ll admit, these statistics are very orientated towards a “user” centric argument. However, this is what the Facebook discussion was about all week. Aspects like continued growth, value and active users is a completely different set of circumstances. But a set of circumstances that would be worth exploring.

And I’m not trying to tarnish Facebook’s great accomplishment here. What I am trying to point out is that we shouldn’t always be so easily blinded by it’s success – especially when Facebook currently plays a minor role in many of the biggest markets in the world. Though, this can change in a matter of years. Than again, it could all change in a matter of years.

What’s really fascinating here is we begin to see why marketing via social media is not that easy. Albeit the US makes up 129 million users, the remaining 74% of the users come from outside the US. Unless you specifically know that a brand or product consumer base is located in the US – and if my understanding of fan pages is correct – trying to target a brand or product that is international would be difficult and time consuming.

In the end, there has to be some kind of value in all of this. How could there not be when hundred’s of millions of people are using social networking websites around the world. And though Facebook boasts the biggest user base in the world, they walk on uncertain grounds as they have to rely on a large number of smaller pockets of users. Something that is even more uncertain in the face of other regionalized networks that already hold particular territories. Something also to consider if for some reason Facebook should begin to decline in the US.

After all, anything is quite possible when it comes down to social networking. No one is immune to collapse, idleness or decline. Though, anyone can achieve dramatic success. We’ve already seen major swings and examples to live by. The only question is, will history repeat itself? Will Facebook be ready if it does.

(Sources: Wikipedia, Facebook Press Room, Twitter Blog, LinkedIn Resource Center, Facebakers.com, TechCrunch, ChinaSocialGames.com)

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Josip

No apologies necessary Howie! With ideas so large, its often difficult to pin-point a particular set. And another great comment! There are some huge dollar figures involved in this equation. There is no doubt about that. Interesting because there has been no clear-cut ROI derived from social media yet.

The Facebook Press Room puts the foreign number at 70%. However, taking an adventure through Facebakers.com - who monitor Facebook stats - put the American user number at approx 129 million. Divide that by the 500 million and the US makes up 26%. Hence foreign being at 74%.

Lastly, and my favorite point you bring up, is the amount of TV usage still going on compared to social media usage. 13-17 years old only make up 11% of US Facebook users. I am very vocal and a believer that TV won't go away.

But like you say, people are investing into the social realm quite heavily, which is true. Something that is interesting considering is sill relatively new and unproven. Is it useful? Yes. But I don't think we should be putting all our eggs into once basket yet.

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Howie at Sky Pulse Media

Josip. My apologies for not sticking with your theme! I have a Finance/Sales background and know all social networks that hope to go IPO are going to give subjective facts that look impressive. And btw I don't blame Facebook. Unlike Twitter which took less money up front Zuckerberg faces investors losing 100's of millions real money and billions on paper if they don't IPO at $23bil. And I didn't want to say that even at whatever level of engagement its amazing the social sphere. A true interpersonal communications revolution.

You are correct the international perspective. BTW the 74% foreign is new to me. I thought 60%. The US Politics does this too. Depending on the needed view numbers get aggregated for effect. Healthcare was $1 tril over 10 years vs 100bil a year. Yet the people using $1 tril for effect don't say $7tril for defense.

What I do with my clients is try to teach them how to truly value things and have realistic expectations. And you hit that on the head. I wish more Marketers had Finance degrees. But I don't want creativity stifled.

One last quick point is while 2 in 3 to 1 in 2 Consumer age Americans are not using social each day, 9 of 10 are watching TV. I think so many people are betting careers and quick bucks on social we have a bubble soon to burst.

I appreciate the comment Christina! And you bring up a valid point. So what about multiple Facebook accounts? I see it all the time on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. I wrote the article itself with some questions that I would like to ask. The reality is that we put in value social media so easily. Both users and those that use it for other purposes. However, when you simply start to break down the numbers you start seeing more questions. Hearing 500 mil is an impressive number but no one will tell you how we can break down that massive number. But like anything else, we boast the amount of users not the amount of inactive and multiple users among other issues.

Great comment Howie! And I won't dispute those facts because I know those facts already. The point of this article was to explore, an "users" based argument. I quote:

"I’ll admit, these statistics are very orientated towards a “user” centric argument. However, this is what the Facebook discussion was about all week. Aspects like continued growth, value and active users is a completely different set of circumstances. But a set of circumstances that would be worth exploring."

Part of what I wanted to draw out this article was show people that the numbers go beyond amount of users. Equally, that even though it does dominate the US, Facebook itself relied on 74% of its accounts coming out of the US. With that being said what would be the active user rates outside the US compared to inside?

Though your points hold true, its interesting to see we're always arguing to use social media in your marketing efforts. And though its worth it. If you're in the US, you're not get 500 mil in your audience. You're getting 129 mil. Something drastically different when you have Chinese networks that are drawing in just 300 mil within China by a network localized there.

Like you said, I clearly didn't include the facts you stated. However, my point was not to include them as stated above. The reality is so much can be said about the subject, and as we're all talking about it do we know what it means?

christina_brown

I was about to say. What about the people with multiple Facebook accounts.

But you forget Facebook is really counting accounts. I have 2 accounts. I know of many dead accounts. There are thousands of Spam accounts that promote porn links on Brand Pages. When Facebook had on its stats page 200mil logged in every day, they also had up (since scrubbed) that 35 mil update their status, 65mil comment per day. Thats only 100mil actions assuming each person only does one action. So up to 150mil people logging in each day do nothing but read posts? Other facts. People 'Like' a fan page 3 times per month and upload 4 photos per month (more data scrubbed from the Stats page). Lastly the 55mins spent per user per day includes all the time Facebook is up in a Tab yet not being viewed. It also includes all the social gaming time. They refuse to show page views or anything that shows true engagement with the site. As I type this they are counting the mins as time spent even though I am not on the page.

On top of this they consider an Active User someone who logs in once per month. Is that active to you?

I think the reality is similar to Twitter. Twitter has 100mil accounts yet only 5m to 15mil per day use the site world wide. FB I have estimated has 25-50mil active users per day world wide.