
Zuckerberg Makes It Official: Facebook Hits 500 Million Members - ashishbharthi
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/21/facebook-500-million/
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Timothee
Facebook's blog post actually says "500 million people all around the world
are _actively_ using Facebook" (emphasis mine), which makes this much more
impressive.

Though I'd like to know what qualifies one as active. I'd also like to know
the total number of registered users.

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dnaquin
"users who have returned to the site in the last 30 days"
facebook.com/press/info.php?factsheet

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Retric
It's still probably inflated by people with multiple profiles and people that
quit within the month etc. However, it's also still accurate enough to be
really impressive.

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simonsez
How big do you all think Facebook can reasonably get to? I have to think it's
going to be difficult for Facebook to grow anywhere near as fast as they did
to this point unless they can get to China.

It seems like most US companies (search, portal, etc.) haven't done very well
in China - will Facebook be able to buck this trend?

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kylelibra
I agree there has to be a saturation point they will reach. I thought it would
have been reached before 500 million users though. I think Facebook could do
very well in China, just like they are on the way to becoming #1 in India and
Brazil.

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all_elements
Facebook is not accessible in China now -- at least not in its full form as we
know it. Facebook will have to morph significantly to enter China (filtering,
cooperating with authorities, cultural barriers, etc.). It will be interesting
to see how this process works out.

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gojomo
Facebook's user population has been larger than the US population, ~300
million, for about a year. Facebook, considered as a nation, would have the
3rd largest population in the world. To move into 2nd place, Facebook would
have to pass India -- 1.2 billion users/citizens.

