Facebook is the second-most-visited website on earth, ranking behind
only Google - with the average Facebook user spending almost an
hour on the network each day.
(Kirkpatrick: The Facebook Effect)
Where are most of Facebook's users located?
About 70% of all Facebook users are outside the United States.
(Washington Post)
How accessible is the site to people of differing nationalities?
Facebook is currently translated into more than 40 languages.
(New York Times)
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| Estimates
indicate that Facebook's revenues, mostly from advertising,
could top $1 billion this year. (Los Angeles Times) |
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How did it accomplish this feat?
Facebook is able to translate its site into dozens of languages
by asking international users to install an application that lets
them translate words on Facebook from English to their native languages.
The translations are then voted on by users.
(CNET)
Is Facebook the leading social network in every country?
In only Japan, Russia, China and South Korea is Facebook not the
leading social network. In these countries, Facebook faces large,
established competitors, including Japan's Mixi, Tencent QQ in China
and Vkontakte of Russia.
(Financial Times)
On average, how many users are on Facebook daily?
Facebook has 150 million users a day, compared to 55 million for
YouTube.
(Benchmark Capital and Institutional Venture Partners)
Who are Facebook's most popular members?
As of July 22, 2010, the late Michael Jackson had nearly 16.8 million
fans on Facebook, followed by singer Lady Gaga (13.3 million), actor
Vin Diesel (12 million) and U.S. President Barack Obama (11.1 million).
(Facebook)
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| With
over 48 billion unique images, Facebook houses the world's
largest photo collection. (Time Magazine) |
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What can be gleaned about human behavior from Facebook?
Based on access to two years of anonymous "status updates" from
100 million U.S. Facebook users, happiness increases an average
of 9.7% on Friday, compared with Monday, the worst day of the week.
(Facebook)
Apart from the social networking aspect, what else does Facebook
have to offer?
More than 200 million people play games on Facebook every month.
A handful of games - Farmville, Treasure Isle, Cafe Worlds, Mafia
Wars and PetVille - account for more than half of those numbers.
(Financial Times)
How many pictures have users displayed on the site?
With over 48 billion unique images, Facebook houses the world's
largest photo collection.
(Time Magazine)
Why is Facebook a double-edged sword?
| |
| The
number of Facebook users is close to the combined populations
of the United States, Japan and Germany. (Washington Post) |
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Facebook provides great opportunities for personal contact - for
example, you can celebrate your niece's first steps there and mourn
the death of a close friend - but the company is making money because
its users are, on some level, broadcasting those moments online.
(Time Magazine)
What's at the root of the controversy surrounding Facebook?
Facebook has come under fire for its policies on issues such as
how it handles user data, how long it retains information from deleted
accounts - and how much of a member's profile can be shared with
third-party partners.
(CNET)
Have Facebook's privacy policies encountered resistance in the
United States?
While Facebook's privacy policies have been maligned by advocacy
groups, legally speaking, they have thus far held up relatively
well in the United States. For example, a coalition of senators
who called attention to the amount of data that Facebook shares
with third parties quieted down when the social network made some
modifications.
(CNET)
Is the story different outside the United States?
The vast majority of Facebook's users live outside the United States,
in countries where laws are different and where lawmakers are much
less likely to agree with the Facebook concept - or even the American
concept - of online privacy.
| |
| Facebook
is the second-most- visited website on earth, ranking
behind only Google. (Kirkpatrick: The Facebook Effect) |
|
|
(CNET)
Are the company's privacy woes taking a toll on its public image?
In mid-July 2010, Facebook received a rating of 64 out of 100 on
the University of Michigan's 2010 American Customer Satisfaction
Index E-Business report. It thus ranks lower than the IRS - and
is in the bottom 5% of all the private companies the report measured,
including airlines and cable companies.
(Los Angeles Times)
How did Facebook get its start?
In 2004, 19-year-old Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg co-founded
Facebook in his dorm room. The site was originally only for Harvard
students, but it gradually expanded to other colleges before becoming
available to high school students - and then to anybody over age
13.
(New York Times)
How much money does Facebook make?
While Facebook is a privately held company and does not disclose
financial results, estimates indicate that its revenues, mostly
from advertising, could top $1 billion this year - up from about
$550 million in 2009 and $300 million in 2008.
(Los Angeles Times)
And finally, despite the fact that there are people joining every
day, are there also people leaving?
According to figures from Google, in early May 2010, global queries
for "delete Facebook account" more than doubled - reaching a record
high.
(Financial Times)
