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Facebook now as big as the entire Internet was in 2004

FacebookAt the recent F8 conference Facebook revealed that they now have 800 million active users. Europe, with Russia included, has a population of 727 million. We now have a social network that is so large that it could fill up a major world region with people and still have some to spare (this “spare” being twice the size of Canada’s entire population).

Another cool comparison is that Facebook now has as many users as the entire Internet did back in 2004, the year Facebook was founded.

For fun, here are some other size comparisons you can make.

Facebook user base vs. internet population of world regions

The size of Facebook’s active user base is…

  • 38% of the entire current Internet population
  • 87% of the Internet population of Asia
  • 168% of the Internet population of Europe
  • 294% of the Internet population of North America
  • 370% of the Internet population of Latin America
  • 674% of the Internet population of Africa
  • 1,167% of the Internet population of the Middle East
  • 3,757% of the Internet population of Oceania / Australia

And comparing it with the entire population of a few selected countries, we get this:

Facebook user base vs. country populations

As a companion to the visual above, here you have the actual size relationships:

Facebook’s active user base is…

  • 2.5x the population of the United States
  • 3.9x the population of Brazil
  • 5.8x the population of Russia
  • 6.3x the population of Japan
  • 9.7x the population of Germany
  • 12.4x the population of France
  • 13x the population of the United Kingdom
  • 13.8x the population of Italy
  • 19.7x the population of Spain
  • 23.5x the population of Canada
  • 36.6x the population of Australia
  • 76.7x the population of Belgium
  • 88x the population of Sweden
  • 144.6x the population of Denmark
  • 185.7x the population of Ireland
  • Only India and China have populations larger than Facebook.

Note that the second chart compares entire populations, not just Internet populations (Internet users).

These numbers are pretty mind-boggling. Where will it all end? There’s still plenty of room left for Facebook to grow, but how massive can it get before it grinds to a halt?

Data sources: Population data from GeoHive. Internet user numbers from Internet World Stats.

But wait, there’s more! If you liked this post, check out this chart showing Facebook’s growth through the years, put into perspective by country populations, Internet stats, etc.: Facebook’s ginormous size put into context

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Thanks for the article. Agree with another user that the numbers might be inflated because they don't show numbers of users with two or more Facebook accounts. Would also love to see side-by-side comparisons of radio, TV and the Internet. Glad to see the continued Internet growth, but I still think TV is at the top spot for viewer usage, especially on the weekends when I notice email, website, etc. traffic drop off. The Internet is a "short" attention tool. People watch TV shows and listen to the "same" radio stations for hours. There is a difference in the three, and I think the business leaders who create strategies to work those differences, come out on top. Denise writemoneyinc.com

Remember when new technology got people excited? Now we get worked up over a glorified blog where people post their baby pictures and ruin future employment prospects. Human innovation is dead.

Does Facebook's claim of "active users" match the definition of Groupon's version of an 'active user' where Groupon's valuation dropped from $25 Billion to $3 Billion in 3 hours? If so, you are looking at FaceFraud!

@ED: Facebook's definition of an active user is a user who has logged in at least once during the last 30 days.

Something seems very wrong with these numbers. They claim Denmark has 5.5m facebook users, which is a lilttle too impressive for a country of 5.56m people.

@Dan: Who is claiming Denmark has 5.5 million Facebook users? Not this post. It's comparing Facebook user numbers with country populations.

It kind of begs the question where is all this Facebook data being stored and how safe is it all, I mean that's a lot of info on a lot of people makes you think, erm well it does me how about you guys?.....

Deceptive headline. The number of Facebook users is now equal to all Internet users in 2004.

But how many people have multiple accounts on Facebook?

Since seeing his TED talk, I always read statistics in Hans Roslings voice. :)

YES! Assuming each person only use one facebook profile, in Asia, there are millions of intelligent people who really value the time.

Trackbacks

  1. [...] populations of Europe, North America and all other major geographic regions apart from Asia. Royal Pingdom has created a chart which visualizes this astonishing [...]

  2. [...] todavía hablás con ellos y se sienten vulnerables y atacados en todos lados… #weird :) Via: Royal Pingdom Otros posts que pueden interesarte:Los 20 países con más usuarios de Internet¿Es Facebook 11 [...]

  3. [...] Pingdom han hecho unas comparaciones interesantes acerca de esto, aquí la primera en la que se compara [...]

  4. [...] Pingdom a fait un article sur son site avec l’ensemble des chiffres interessants sur facebook. Depuis le dernier F8 et la confirmation que facebook a 800 millions de membres les chiffres s’enchainent sur la puissance de ce réseau social. Quelques uns qui m’ont particulièrement interessés: [...]

  5. [...] Facebook now as big as the entire Internet was in 2004 mais dados expressionantes em royal.pingdom.com [...]

  6. [...] Facebook is now as big as the entire internet was in 2004 — Royal Pingdom [...]

  7. [...] and Europe combined — and far more than we can manage down in this corner of the world. [Pingdom via Business Insider] [...]

  8. [...] to play the devil’s advocate, we’d like to point out that the Internet usage stats that Royal Pingdom linked to shows that the Web crossed the 800 million mark around October 2004, but we get their [...]

  9. [...] Facebook has more users now than the internet did in 2004. (Royal Pingdom) [...]

  10. [...] zur Größe von Facebook an, unter anderem ist es so groß wie das gesamte Internet im Jahr 2004.» Facebook now as big as the entire Internet was in 2004 -Amen Amen (unser Review) ist jetzt öffentlich gestartet und auch ohne umständliche Einladung [...]

  11. [...] auf der F8 Konferenz bekannt, dass man mittlerweile mehr als 800 Millionen aktive Nutzer habe. Royal Pingdom hat sich die Mühe gemacht, diese beeindruckende Zahl mit der Einwohnerzahl unterschiedlicher Länder zu [...]

  12. [...] to data released by Pingdom, Facebook is also larger than the population of Europe, with Russia included. But when it comes to [...]

  13. [...] Swedish blog royal pingdom created the infographics below, showing how Facebook is bigger than most countries in the [...]

  14. [...] and sandals and, of course, a parasol to shade her beautiful skin from the harsh rays of sun. Fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. Reborn baby dolls are fast becoming a collectible item. The interesting factor about the clothes [...]

  15. [...] Facebook now as big as the entire Internet was in 2004 [...]

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Facebook likeThe juggernaut that is Facebook is quickly approaching 1 billion users, so the social network is growing at a rapid pace overall.

But if we look at some of the latest figures available, it would seem that Zuckerberg’s creation is not gaining users in every corner of the world.

In fact, in one country, Facebook has lost 16% of its users over the last six months, the equivalent of over 200,000 users. But in another country, Facebook has gained almost 17 million users over the same period.

What countries are we talking about, you ask? Read on and we’ll tell you.

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UbuntuDevelopers who want a portable computer to code on, which is thin, light, sleek and yet powerful, may now be getting another option in an ultrabook from Dell. What makes the “Sputnik” ultrabook different is that it runs Ubuntu 12.04 Linux and it’s tailor-made for developers.

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A day in the life of Pingdom – join us May 15

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“Photograph what is close to you. Share it with the world!“ That’s one of the headlines on Aday.org, a global project that will attempt to document what goes around the world in one day.

This all takes place on Tuesday May 15, 2012, and Pingdom will be participating.

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