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I have to ask: do people really believe that "2 billion users" claim? I live in Europe, and yes the majority of people I know have an account, but nowhere near

I have to ask: do people really believe that "2 billion users" claim? I live in Europe, and yes the majority of people I know have an account, but nowhere near all of them, and they're often unfrequent users. But more importantly: with the places where FB is banned, all of the people too young to be on it, all the people too old to have an interest, and all of the people who have in general a limited/difficult Internet access and have more important things to do than get facehooked? Being told that 2 out of every 7 human being manually created their account and are 'active users' who log in at least once a week (or is it month?), somehow leaves me skeptical.

calafrax 9y ago
I do. Facebook peaked and is decline in its early markets but still very strong and growing in other parts of the world. Interesting question is do they actually make any money in emerging markets and are those billion users actually an asset.
- Hasknewbie 9y ago
  I did work for a few months in Bombay last year, and most of my colleagues (20s-to-40s middle class white-collar employees -- a minority in India) had a FB account, but with very little engagement. I have to assume that having many non-urbanized people in India, and therefore many less-connected relatives, probably reduces the interest in FB. They were however all heavy users of Whatsapp, which makes sense to me. I have a feeling that, thanks to smartphone adoption, legions of people are counted as 'in' by FB only because the app is running in the background, when in fact it's not seeing any significant use.
piotrkubisa 9y ago
Could you also explain me if test users generated by dashboard for developers are counted in this 2 billion users claim? I've noticed these accounts aren't in any way logically separated from real accounts. I think there is a lot of apps which uses Facebook services (i.e. OAuth2) which were somehow tested, maybe even by such users.

calafrax 9y ago

I do. Facebook peaked and is decline in its early markets but still very strong and growing in other parts of the world. Interesting question is do they actually make any money in emerging markets and are those billion users actually an asset.

Hasknewbie 9y ago
I did work for a few months in Bombay last year, and most of my colleagues (20s-to-40s middle class white-collar employees -- a minority in India) had a FB account, but with very little engagement. I have to assume that having many non-urbanized people in India, and therefore many less-connected relatives, probably reduces the interest in FB. They were however all heavy users of Whatsapp, which makes sense to me. I have a feeling that, thanks to smartphone adoption, legions of people are counted as 'in' by FB only because the app is running in the background, when in fact it's not seeing any significant use.

piotrkubisa 9y ago

Could you also explain me if test users generated by dashboard for developers are counted in this 2 billion users claim? I've noticed these accounts aren't in any way logically separated from real accounts. I think there is a lot of apps which uses Facebook services (i.e. OAuth2) which were somehow tested, maybe even by such users.