Fast growing social network Facebook has hit the 100 million users mark, according to a statement today by Dave Morin, the company's Senior Platform Manager.
How does that compare to MySpace's ascent? A guy named Rick appears to have become MySpace's 100 millionth registered user in 2006. MySpace took 3 years after launch to hit that magic number; for Facebook it took 4 years and 6 months.
The first years of MySpace were characterized by music and spam, while Facebook's beginnings were in college parties and drama. That drama continues today. For example, the company reports that only 20% of its 100 million users have visited the dramatically redesigned version of the site by clicking on a button at the top of their screen in recent weeks. Facebook users don't like change.
The company wants to spin the 20% number as a positive embrace of the changes (and the ordinarily fabulous Eric Eldon at Venture Beat buys that spin for some reason) but in fact it fits in the history of conflict between Facebook and its users.
None the less, the site is growing by leaps and bounds. 100 million registered users probably includes a substantial number of regularly active users. Now if only the company could figure out how to monetize those numbers as well as they'd like.
We believe they will probably figure it out. More interesting to us is watching Facebook develop its feature set, leading then falling behind in innovation. 100 million registered users is a lot of people to innovate with.
Unfortunately for Facebook, sometimes it seems that those people are not interested in innovation or monetization - they just want to communicate with each other. I guess when you call yourself a "utility" some people expect you to remain unexciting.
Comments
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bullies.
Posted by: MG Siegler
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August 25, 2008 10:53 PM
now MG, I'll assume you don't say that because I give VentureBeat a hard time in the post, right?
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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August 25, 2008 10:55 PM
ha ha, no just a play on your title. i'll let eric defend himself :)
Posted by: MG Siegler
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August 25, 2008 10:58 PM
ha. ok, that's funny.
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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August 25, 2008 11:04 PM
congratulations facebook!
Posted by: Zee at WeDoCreative
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August 25, 2008 11:10 PM
Marshall, I just like to needle people who don't like Facebook ;)
Seriously, though, my point was that Facebook users have a habit of not liking its new features. How many people would have opted into the news feed when it first launched? Probably a lot less than 20 percent. After all, wasn't the news feed just like spying on your friends?
Also, in terms of how significant the 80/20 number is, the feature hasn't been fully implemented -- it's opt-in, not opt-out. To me, this means that some of the 80 percent who aren't using the new Facebook might like it, they just haven't really tried it yet.
Given what else we don't know about how the interface is doing with users, I take these to be positive signs.
But I agree, we shall see.
Posted by: Eric Eldon | August 25, 2008 11:12 PM
commented :)
Posted by: Eric Eldon
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August 25, 2008 11:13 PM
most of them just to play fluff friends :/
Posted by: Paul Moss
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August 25, 2008 11:19 PM
There are plenty of ways Facebook can monetize, they just didn't find one yet.
Any idea? :)
Posted by: Simone
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August 25, 2008 11:47 PM
This is 100 million active users, not 100 million registered users.
Posted by: Blake Ross | August 26, 2008 12:37 AM
wow ... amazing ...
Posted by: Raza
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August 26, 2008 2:00 AM
I wonder how many of Myspace's 100 Million in their first three years were spam users.
Posted by: David Young
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August 26, 2008 4:01 AM
MySpace still kicks them to the curb!
Jen
http://www.useurl.us/17n
Posted by: Jenny West | August 26, 2008 11:16 AM
its also note worthy that they are worth 13 BILLION DOLLARS, last time iheard about this. TO put this in perspective, ford, the motor company is worth less than four!. WTF MATE, no wonder obama has been using web 2.0 all throughout his compaing
Posted by: mozey.wordpress.com
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August 26, 2008 11:38 AM
I'll take facebook over myspace any day.
Posted by: Tracy Hartjen
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August 26, 2008 11:42 AM
AUG 26,2008.
15:30 PM.
MARRIED COMING UP 19 YEARS.
NO KIDS.
BUT 1 FEMALE DASHOUND.
MAGGIE.
WE RENT A HOUSE THAT IS FALLING APART BIGTIME.
Posted by: KIM BLODGETT | August 26, 2008 12:36 PM
They take only 4 years to do this.
Posted by: usri | August 26, 2008 10:49 PM
And if they try really hard, they might just become an annoyance to QQ's 317 million users. Ouch.
~ Wogan
Posted by: Wogan May | August 26, 2008 11:50 PM
I wonder how many of those are Spam users? I wonder how many of those are uniquely owned? I know a few people who have multiple accounts.
Posted by: Robert | August 27, 2008 1:26 AM
Well, here is the thing, even though it took more time for Facebook to hit 100M users, No doubt that Facebook is already or will be better than Myspace.
Posted by: MGA | August 27, 2008 8:17 AM
seriouly....who cares!
Posted by: danny | August 27, 2008 10:55 AM
The online dating application used for Facebook is owned by a company called Snap Interactive. It already has hit 13 million users. It is publicly traded and I would think it is a good investment.
Posted by: Anthony Wayne | August 28, 2008 8:14 AM
I don't especially like FB, but I just found a friend from 15 years ago.. now my FB relationship is love/hate and its grand!!
Posted by: Heidi Jeffers Thibodeau
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August 28, 2008 7:33 PM
I'd choose FB over MyS anyday...
Posted by: Ian May
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August 28, 2008 7:54 PM
I'm with you Heidi
Posted by: anna
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August 28, 2008 8:06 PM
So if 100 million is 1 tenth of a billion, and there are 6 billion of us, Facebook is a long way off cataloging the entire human race. Seems to have served no purpose so far other than seperate the extroverted those who want to be 'out there' and 'seen' types from the more shy away 'keep to themselves' want to be left alone types. Unless everyones on Facebook, then only half your real actual friends will get the invite to 'that party' or whatever. If some people use social networks and others don't, if half your real friends in real life want to be on Facebook and half don't, ultimately it segregates us which kinda defeats the purpose.
Posted by: Krull | August 29, 2008 4:34 AM
Imagine the kind of traffic it might be getting. Facebook is indeed a revolution. I always loved it. You may wish to check out my ways to promote books on Facebook.
Facebook got ten million more members within a few days, it seems. I don't think mYspace will make any big difference. I love facebook and it will always be Facebook.
Posted by: Lenin Nair | August 29, 2008 7:25 AM
I'm all for innovation, but the new interface that Facebook has proposed actually provides me less information about what my friends are doing than the interface that I am currently using. All of my friends feel the same, which is why we've looked at it, reverted back and sent comments to the company.
Your post says, "20% have visited the redesign," but how many stuck with using it? That number, obviously, is less than the 20% and my guess is that it's much, much less.
Posted by: bobroth | August 29, 2008 8:10 AM
WoW, I want to see their data center :)
Posted by: Michello | August 29, 2008 3:29 PM
Just a couple of clarifications needed here I think:
MySpace is an open, broadcast channel - sign up as many followers as possible, rarely are profiles locked to 'friends only'. So they were able to quickly sign up 100 million of users in 3 years. Facebook started as a walled garden (students only) until September 26 2006, and then it went gated (connect with friends). So I would say that they signed up their 100million in 2 years almost exactly, with the additional challenge of that gated connectivity - not broadcast, only friends signing up friends. How many Facebookers have 200,000+ friends? Not as many as MySpace. (Yes I know that Facebook allows you to have a public profile, but what percentage open their profile up?)
@Krull you're an idiot. Any service that connects up 10% of the internet population (1 billion) in 2 years or 4 years or hell even 10 years has moved fast. Tell me another product or service that got engaged on that scale, that quickly. You act like that's a minor feat which tells me you have no clue about the cultural impact of MySpace and Facebook.
Lastly, Facebookers have a good relationship with the host company - except for the intro of the newsfeed a couple of years ago, which had them signing a petition (1/3 of the population in 48 hours) to turn it off, they've accepted, or been apathetic, about everything. In the end only about 67,000 members (out of millions) rejected Beacon by joining groups and petitions - most of the furore was from a blogger echo chamber revolt with some traditional jealous media types thrown in. Beacon is still there. Considering how EVERY online community biatches about their hosts, Facebook have it good.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. :)
Posted by: Laurel Papworth | August 30, 2008 2:40 AM
WOW!!. Facebook is amazing. I have been using for sometime and its a great place to meet and make friends. Thanks Marshall for putting up this post. It was nice reading through it.
Posted by: Krish | August 30, 2008 12:15 PM
Facebook is a great social networking. It has many apps that useful for internet marketer. But ini Asia Facebook has less popularity rather than Friendster.
Posted by: atlantis.net | August 31, 2008 1:18 AM
Its amazing! One million users was a great achievement.
Posted by: andrew kim | September 9, 2008 11:06 PM