Facebook Stats – Quick Guide

Most of you, upon hearing the phrase Social Media, will instantly think of Facebook. And there’s no need to blame yourself really for Facebook is the largest social media platform out there. With 2.23 billion Monthly Active Users (MAUs), it stands at the top, followed by YouTube with 1.9 billion MAUs. There’s a good chance that almost everyone you know has an account there which they actively use which begs the question: How did it become so big? Let’s find out.

History

• Facebook was founded on February 2004 by founder and current CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
• Zuckerberg was a Sophomore at Harvard University and just 19 years old at that time.
• The website was originally called TheFacebook and was an inspiration from an editorial in Harvard’s newsletter, Crimson, which stated, “It is clear that the technology needed to create a centralized Website is readily available … the benefits are many.”
• Things weren’t as good as three seniors at Harvard reported against Zuckerberg for stealing their idea and eventually filed a lawsuit against him.
• The lawsuit went on for 4 years after finally settling in 2008 for $300 million at TheFacebook’s Initial Public Offering which was equivalent to 1.2 million shares.
• The initial membership for TheFacebook was limited to Harvard students but was later expanded to other Ivy Leagues.
• The name was changed to Facebook in 2005 after purchasing the domain for $200,000.
• Facebook’s membership was expanded to everyone over 13 years old with a valid email address in September 2006.

Mark Zuckerberg

• Mark Zuckerberg was born in 1984 in New York.
• Zuckerberg started early education at Ardsley High School before transferring to Phillips Exeter Academy. It is known that he excelled in his classes.
• Zuckerberg had an impressive college application, stating that he could communicate in French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek.
• While he was still in school, Zuckerberg took a graduate course at Mercy College on software development.
• He was also the captain of his school’s Fencing team.
• Zuckerberg started education at Harvard in 2003 to pursue a degree in Psychology and Computer Science.
• After creating Facebook in his Sophomore year, Zuckerberg dropped out with plans to complete his project.
• In 2017, Zuckerberg received an honorary degree from Harvard.
• Zuckerberg’s estimated net worth is $55 billion as of November 2018.
• Mark actively uses his Instagram and Facebook. He has a Twitter account but surprisingly doesn’t use it. The last post was made in 2009.

Social Media

• It has over 213.5 million likes on its Facebook page.
• It has 13.5 million followers on Twitter and a following of 705. Notable followings include Netflix US, Dua Lipa, Liverpool FC, Justin Trudeau, and Ellen DeGeneres.
• On its Instagram, it has 3.1 million followers but only follows 8 accounts. Some of them are Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg, Oculus, and Kevin Systrom.

Importance on the Modern World

• Unlike most of the social media sites that came before and even some that came after, Facebook was here to stay. Even to this day, it has managed to stay relevant.
• It has helped businesses find a platform where they can advertise and even sell their products. The ability to make and promote a page of your local business has helped many entrepreneurs have a great start.
• Other than that, it also provides an effective channel for journalism. Media sites can link their news stories or articles in posts that result in high traffic to their respective websites thanks to the wide user base of Facebook.
• Business aside, Facebook also plays a huge role in regular communication. As mentioned before, you’re likely to find everyone you know here. That results in a common platform where people can communicate while only paying for their internet bill!
• As for the community, Facebook can help raise awareness over issues in society. That is possible through its post sharing feature and feedback system for business pages for anyone to see.
• Facebook plays an important role in being a “trendsetter” along with a couple of other sites. Various trends have started on this social media site and have gotten popular all over the internet.
• It had a major role in normalizing meme culture among the masses. A meme is an online picture/video/gif that is intended for humorous purposes.

Revenue Model

1) Advertisements

• Facebook’s main source of revenue is Advertisements. In fact, they contribute 98.5% to the company’s overall revenue.
• Experts have given Facebook’s technique a slogan which says, “If you’re not paying, you’re the product”. The actual product here is the information users provide the site.
• The information is extremely valuable to advertising companies. Using that data, they target their advertisements to a certain group of people who might be interested rather than everyone.
• The advertisers can target audiences based on age, gender, relationship status, education, workplace, job titles and much more.
• Facebook says, “Two billion people use Facebook every month. With our powerful audience selection tools, you can target the people who are right for your business”.
• The advertisements are displayed in different forms; typical banner ones and in-video ones being the most common.

2) Promotional Services

• Other than advertisements, the other source of revenue for this social giant is through promotional services.
• These include options for businesses to “Boost” their posts so they reach more people.
• Like advertisements, they can be targeted to a specific audience to ensure the best response.
• When you “Boost” a post, it appears on the news feed of the person who hasn’t followed your page as a “Sponsored Post”.
• The charges are usually around $2.4 per day but can vary depending on the duration of the time the post is boosted.
• This feature helps promote new business get the traction they need to get started.

Careers

• As of June 2018, Facebook has over 30,000 employees.
• Facebook, like all other large corporations, offers various job opportunities for people.
• Their internship program is called Facebook University. It offers training in Engineering, Operations, Global Marketing Solutions, Analytics, and Product Design.
• Facebook also offers part-time job opportunities for university students. The openings include Environmental Analyst Intern, Media Content Operator Intern, Computer Graphics Intern and a lot more.
• The regular jobs positions include AV Deployment Engineer, Product Designer, DIrector Sourcing for Memory and Silicon Products, and so on.

Recent News

• Since 2020, Facebook shares have reached a high of 275.59.
• Facebook is developing a new cryptocurrency for transferring money on WhatsApp. They will call the new currency “stablecoin”
• Facebook, along with the other social media giant, Twitter remove accounts spreading fake news prior to Bangladesh elections. Facebook said their activity can be deemed as “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and is against their community guidelines.
• The District of Columbia has sued Facebook over the infamous Cambridge Analytica scandal. They blame the company for its lack of oversight of its third-party applications.