Facebook announced it has made past the 2 billion user mark, a first for any social media platform so far. What is even more impressive is that the 2 billion monthly user mark has been reached in just about 5 years after reaching the first billion in 2012.
Also of course as Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox acknowledged, that many people logging in to a single platform every month does make for a huge responsibility. With the diverse mix of users logging in from every part of the globe, making them all conform to a single set of rules is no mean task.
Conflict resolution is another aspect that would have its scope vastly increased given the stupendous growth rate Facebook has hit upon. That’s because of the sheer number of people coming from different groups and communities that often end up having conflicting likes and preferences.
As it is, Facebook has often been pulled up for their lax attitude towards objectionable content shown on its site. Those include acts of extreme violence, terror propaganda, child porn and such, which the social media giant has often been accused of being late in attending to.
Facebook though had earlier announced it is devising new policies and methods to tackle such instances. That includes bolstering an artificial intelligence program to screen the millions of posts made each day while new heads have been hired to look into specific complaints.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg meanwhile has stated they would be continuing with their goal of bringing the world closer together with renewed zeal. The company shared on its news site there are about 800 million likes made on Facebook each day, while its Groups feature is used by over a billion people every month. The social media giant said they would be celebrating the feat by launching personalized video themed around bringing the world closer on everyone news feed.
Also, while Facebook raced past the 2 billion monthly users mark, its sister apps too feature prominently in the billion-plus club. WhatsApp and Messenger each have a user base of 1.2 billion while Instagram is fast catching up with its 700 million user base. The only other social app anywhere closer to Facebook is YouTube with its 1.5 billion user base.
Facebook meanwhile attributed their growth to their emphasis to draw in users from the developing countries. The company has been pursuing the policy of launching a robust app that would be compliant with even low-end Android phones and would run in low-bandwidth regions. Low-cost Android phones and low bandwidth to often even unreliable internet connection characterizes the vast developing stretches of the world.
No wonder, the bulk of Facebook’s user base comes from Asia and other regions of the world where 746 million new users logged in to the platform. In comparison, only 41 million new users from the US and Canada joined Facebook over the last five years.
