Comments for How Big is Facebook?

How Big is Facebook?

2009-04-08T17:17:01Z

Facebook announced this morning that it will welcome its 200 millionth user today. That's a whole lot of people. Just three months ago the company announced it was starting the year out with 150 million users. That kind of growth could make a person's brain hurt. People want to connect with each other and Facebook is clearly a very compelling way to do that these days.

Just how hot is it though? For context, we looked up some other activities and offer below a list of things that are less popular these days than being a registered user at Facebook. Bowling, for example, appears to be headed the way of MySpace - there are now twice as many Facebook users as there are people who play ten pin bowling around the world.

]]> At 200 million users, Facebook is:

Twice as big as the largest number of people who have ever watched a Superbowl game

Twice as big as YouTube

Twice as big as Skype

Bigger than the number of people who own gaming consoles in their homes (190m)

Bigger than the population of all but 4 countries in the world. (Just passed Brazil, next in line is Indonesia and then the US.)

Twice as big as eBay.

Four times as big as the number of people in the US who run on treadmills.

It's twice as big as the number of malnourished people in India. Another way to look at that is to imagine that half of the people on Facebook were malnourished and living in one place.

Now imagine if all the brainpower spent on building stupid Facebook apps was instead spent on helping all the malnourished people in India and around the world. Imagine, though, if the 100 million people who like to bowl gave that up in favor of working for world peace.

These numbers can't be directly compared with any real meaning, but we think it's interesting for context. It's still cooler to live in France than it is to have a Facebook account, even if it is only 30% as popular.

Bowling photo by Flickr user Pål Berge.

Comment from Alan Wilensky on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T17:43:12Z

Ok, you say, "Now imagine if all the brainpower spent on building stupid Facebook apps was instead spent on helping all the malnourished people in India and around the world. Imagine, though, if the 100 million people who like to bowl gave that up in favor of working for world peace."

I would settle for a use case for daily business for real, service oriented small and medium business. I don' think that is in the cards, however, as they are not really set up for productivity. But they could be.

More likely that another company will take FB lessons learned and create something for real product service management, or knowledge work group enabling, where there is still much work to be done. Web20 really let these sectors down.

Comment from Jamster on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T17:48:47Z

The biggest bubble on the web!
The biggest time waster!
The most heavily funded site in history.
Most arrogant CEO (who stole the idea from his college buddies).
Company with the most secrets.
Social network backed by the CIA fund.
Biggest baddest PR machine on the web.
Most closed network.
Network most likely to sell its users out.
How about them apples :)

Comment from j allard on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T17:50:07Z

Or... 1/2 the size of Yahoo.
Yahoo has 500 million uniques.

Comment from Alan Wilensky on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T18:07:23Z

There are many, many, local collaborative business models where servicers have to cover each other, work in self-composed work-groups, and other real business-money subscriber pay-by-the-month stuff where the "graph" is real, not some speculative someday it will pay thing.

The VC money wants nothing to do with such real, blue collar, work and trade social network mobile opportunities. I went to so many meetings and incubators, networking events, etc. I went with real product research for the self dispatched automotive services business. The funders wanted virtual goods and false G-ds.

Much of a FB type platform is really great for the back end, persistent storage and membership management, +++++. But the for real applications, used by real businesses, where the transactions make money are not happening. This is not due to a lack of ideas or business models (try me, I ask you , I dare you), but that the sources who can stake a reasonable sum to get the market and technical functionality established are just not from that world where folks do real, technical, skilled and semi-skilled work.

They are just becoming semi-disabused of the all free, ad-supported model. Maybe they will take a call from me now. I mean, I have no profile, no university education, and I am not that combination of CEO / CFO / CTO, but I have been around and have a couple of products under my belt.

If facebook crests and falls (unlikely), let noone say that there was no model where at least one channel of productivity development wasn't proposed.

Comment from Stiflersmom on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T18:24:23Z

Fwance finally has someone whose ass it can kick! Viva La Fwance!

Comment from MR on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T18:40:17Z

Many of us have different accounts. For example, I have one for my family, other for my friends or co-workers... I don't want them all sharing the same wall!!

Comment from Indian on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T18:40:35Z

Why do you comment about malnourishment in India?? You can write much better things about India. This is totally unacceptable.. RWW sucks.. totally!!

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T18:46:11Z

Indian - I'm looking at numbers and the number of malnourished people in India in particular is a big one. People in tech tend to just talk about good news about India, so when the opportunity arises to mention another part of the story, I think it's worthwhile to do so.

Comment from The Dude on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T19:29:30Z

I don't know who peed on your rug, man, but MySpace doesn't deserve to be in the same sentence as the fine sport of bowling. You know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Comment from Indian on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T19:37:07Z

I don't want this to be a flame war..

Somehow the author's tone in the comment doesn't appeal to me. If you look at the list of comparisons that you have created, this one about malnourishment clearly stands out without implying much about the topic at hand. Looks like the author is inspired by recent movies like Slumdog millionaire which many indians hate for misrepresenting india.

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T19:41:34Z

@Indian, thanks for coming back and responding! In fact I haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire and am not familiar with the controversies around it. Perhaps I should recognize that there is in fact lots of discussion then about poverty in India and keep my uninformed nose out of it! I hadn't even thought about that movie. Thanks!

Comment from Marshall Kirkpatrick on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T19:53:16Z

@Indian, upon further reflection - I'm not sure it's ever wrong to point to a group of hungry people and say "those people are hungry, and there are a lot of them." That's all I meant to say and I think that's appropriate.

Comment from bof on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T20:39:07Z

"It's still cooler to live in France than it is to have a Facebook account"

- I'm guessing that the author has never actually tried to live in France. The least 'easy' place to live on the planet.

The thing about living in France is that that the theory is waaay better than the reality. A bit like Facebook...

Comment from bof on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T20:48:18Z

"Looks like the author is inspired by recent movies like Slumdog millionaire which many indians hate for misrepresenting india."

- Sorry to jump in on this.

@Indian: are you denying that malnourishment is a massive problem in India?

All the shiny tech parks that bring fantastic jobs to many bright and uber-talented people, don't mean that the often crippling poverty of the majority of Indians can be airbrushed out of public awarness...

As Marshall concluded, you are never wrong to point at an elephant in the room and exlaim: "there's a damn elephant in the room".

The hallmark of strength is a willingness to face up to your weakenesses.

Comment from Tim on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T21:23:51Z

Facebook is cool enough that 200 million use it and like it, but somewhere in the background I wonder if we are evolving into a species with monitors for heads- maybe not literally, but in ways just as important.

Possible cure. Walk into a forest for at least an hour with no devices on you. See if that interface is something you can still resonate with.

leavethejobbehind.com

Comment from Troy Peterson on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T21:30:47Z

I have to agree with Marshall on this one...
Pointing out that there are millions of malnurished people in India is not a dig on the country, it's simply a statistic.

So, to counter it, let's state another statistic...
There are more children in India with a Genius IQ level than there are children in the United States.

Let's all try not to be so sensitive about things.

Comment from Aziz on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T21:34:06Z

@Indian

And I think it is just highlighting what is perhaps India's biggest problem. It is only if these problems get media attention that they will eventually get solved.

@Marshall

As almost always, thanks!

Comment from Aziz on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T21:39:17Z

@bof

"The hallmark of strength is a willingness to face up to your weakenesses."

Should be included in a collections of quotations somewhere .. nice one..

Comment from xavier on 2009-04-08

2009-04-08T23:23:49Z

fictitious numbers… of those 200 million I don't believe that it arrives at a 10% of authentic users.
Aside they are the people with two or more accounts.
By the way, I prefer Spain than France :))

Comment from 面经 on 2009-04-08

2009-04-09T02:29:04Z

Big enough to beat any social networks :)

Comment from Phillip Gibb on 2009-04-08

2009-04-09T06:55:11Z

not sure if I agree with you because I think FB is just a huuuuge FAD. But twitter is a cult I believe.

Comment from turb on 2009-04-09

2009-04-09T13:56:46Z

well i have never used facebook and i have more people on my contacts on my phone and i wouldn't want to waste my time on the computer when i can do it on my cell!!!!

Comment from Debjit on 2009-04-09

2009-04-09T14:32:30Z

Why do you have to cite example of India when it comes to malnutrition. There still exists many other countries whose condition is much worse that India's. Anyways, pretty good facts up there :-)

Comment from Sujay Ray on 2009-04-12

2009-04-12T18:42:48Z

@ Marshall

Writing about the statistics on malnourished people in India was totally uncalled.... There was no logic in putting that point in context to the post where you are describing the feat archived by some organization.... You could have use something else.... We expect much more maturity in terms of using the set of words from a professional blogger like you... In all those comparisons you used India as the only nation to compare with, that to with a dismal statistic. Remember every country has its own set of problems so putting that thing out of context in a tech post doesn't solve the purpose. If you are that much concerned about this issue then better start doing something about those malnourished people.... It simply looks that you took a dig on India. Would request you to better remove that portion from your post. Remember many of your readers come from the same country and they wont take this well.......

Comment from Deepak on 2009-04-13

2009-04-13T11:36:20Z

Commenting on a Country's population and then comparing it with something like bowling! A seriously sensitive issue of a growing economy been compaired with something so insensitive shows the childish behaviour of the author. Author should reconsider some better examples to satisfy his hypothese on bowling.

Comment from Gaurav Banerjee on 2009-04-13

2009-04-13T11:48:37Z

The comparison with Indian Demographic stats is bull shit - looks like the author has an intention of spoiling the name of India at a forum accessible by the global population - poor display of insensitivity - not at all appreciated

Comment from Raavi on 2009-04-13

2009-04-13T12:45:09Z

India is a land of brains and intellectual people, but If the author is an Indian,then i must say there are some excpetions to it.

Comment from Abhay on 2009-04-13

2009-04-13T12:50:07Z

Why don't you compared it with the mal nourished ppl in the U.S. A. You'll find many times users on your social networking site. Do you want that all the Indian ppl should leave facebook by reading this sarcastic comment?? This is something which is directly offensive to my country and I along with my fellow Countrymates will not gonna tolerate it at any cost. please remove it as soon as possible or else I'll leave facebbok in next few days...

Abhay Agrawal

India

Comment from Indian on 2009-04-13

2009-04-13T15:08:12Z

To Marshall Kirkpatrick,

You don't seem to have understood the point. Like many people commented after me, your list of comparisons doesn't make sense to anyone (not just Indians). You seem to be ranting about India, I don't know why.

I was expecting RWW to post professional bloggers, I am turned off by this. Like many others said above, many countries have their own problems. This is not a forum to bring out those issues.

Comment from renu on 2009-04-14

2009-04-14T07:14:32Z

The comments being used for India simply shows that the author is illiterate and insensible. He is playing with the emotions of allll Indians which is highly objectionable...there are much more good things in India to be talked about...and mind it, India is not only the country that has malnutritioned masses.... pls remove those lines from your blog now.

Comment from Nidhi on 2009-04-14

2009-04-14T17:06:47Z

Hi Marshall,

Very disappointed after reading the content and the kind of example you cited to tell how big is Facebook. Anyways I can say out of all the countries you got India, See how big India is...but I am sorry to say that you don't know the actual India. They don't need Facebook to live at many places. We Indians are everywhere. Our uniqueness is this, that we can converse in your language also but you can't converse in ours. How poor and malnourished you are..without knowing the facts you are citing such examples on this forum. Take my advice, get nourished with the facts first....

Regards
Indian

Comment from Slope on 2009-04-14

2009-04-15T06:45:04Z

A lot of comments have revolved against the comparison of 'malnutrioned people' with internet statistics. It clearly focuses on one thing - the author wanted to create a 'controversy' and giving information was not his motto. I give it to the author. After all India has the fastest growing internet population and English speaking crowd. Making a 'racist' comment would surely attract a lot of attention (read : page views) for this site. Great trick. However, just one thing - you lose on credibility by following such cheap gimmicks.

Comment from Bobby on 2009-04-14

2009-04-15T06:49:30Z

ha ha ha... I bet that one line (you know which one) got you more page views and involvement than you expected. If this was a well thought out plan - kudos. If it came spontaneously - u need to improve taste. :)

Comment from Matthew Tietje on 2009-04-15

2009-04-15T16:40:01Z

We talked about this today on our show. Thanks for making this and other great articles available to us!

~Matthew Tietje
The Techology Show

http://www.thetechologyshow.com/2009/04/episode-006/

Comment from Ambuj Kumar on 2009-04-16

2009-04-16T20:28:22Z

Hey Marshall,

Its really nice that you are so aware about India and its statistics...but I feel there are good ways of showing that...You could have compared with the number of doctors we produce each year or the number of places of worship or the number of Postgraduates we produce each year.... believe me even these are sizeable number you can compare with any thing Biiiiig...

No Hard Feelings...Cheers

Comment from Anjali on 2009-05-19

2009-05-20T05:27:00Z

hey Marshall,

great article.however, i would like to know certain more facts, just to get a crystal clear picture of how big is facebook.
like is it bigger than the number of obese in United states??
Is it as fast growing as the hate crimes in US and UK!
Is it as big as the indian railways,which is the worlds largest employer?
Is it growing as fast as yoga in the western countires?

many more questions, if only you could answer these.

thanks!

Comment from Cheap Facebook Developers on 2009-08-05

2009-08-05T09:23:57Z

Facebook is really big, no doubt. It really great for facebook developers also. Nice info. Thanks

Comment from Baguette on 2009-09-16

2009-09-16T09:25:43Z

You say that it's cooler to live in France than to be on Facebook, I'm French and most of the days I live, I'd prefer to be abroad than in here... Come here and you'll see how it's better to have a Facebook account !!! ;-)