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It's a really good question - I made the note elsewhere [1] that I was really surprised at 663 million users, because that would make Skype more popular than Fa

It's a really good question - I made the note elsewhere [1] that I was really surprised at 663 million users, because that would make Skype more popular than Facebook (by measurements of popularity that don't include swearing the calls that start glitching ten minutes in). 170 million I can believe more readily. It could just be the difference between users and registered accounts (I know several people who've set up Skype 4-5 times over the years, using it rarely and then creating a new account on a new machine when they need to use it again). [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2531626 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2531626

nikcub 15y ago
Facebook has 650M active users. They always measure and cite active users, to their credit they do not fudge around with the numbers in their PR Skype is 170M active (quarterly, Facebook is monthly), and 680M total registered. A lot more people have given Skype their payment details than have Facebook - which results in Skype monetizing a lot better (but still not awesome monetization - yet, but it is improving). Edit: Facebook has never published total registered, see http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics It is difficult to apples v apples with skype + facebook since their methodologies vary, but it seems that the fb active user base is ~3x Skype
- codeup 15y ago
  How many registered users does FB have in total?
  - nikcub 15y ago
    I went back as far as I could, and Facebook never released total registered users. It wouldn't be relevant since fan pages, product pages, apps etc. are all in the same namespace, and there would be a lot of spam and dev accounts I remember reading a blog post where somebody tried to calculate it by enumerating user ID's, but he didn't come to a clear conclusion. the FB key numbers are 650M active per month, 50% of that active per day. I wish other companies were as simple and transparent with their own stats PR - instead of nonsense like 'messages processed per fortnight', 'total logins', etc. etc.
- danieldk 15y ago
  How does one count users? I previously used a Skype account, but now I share a Skype phone with my girlfriend and her account. I'd guess there are plenty of families with one Skype account.
  - nikcub 15y ago
    with skype all they do is look at unique logins per financial quarter, so in your scenario (and I assume it is common, because I have my own family members doing the same thing) it will count as a single user perhaps they should adjust their terminology and refer to them as 'accounts' rather than 'users'

nikcub 15y ago

Facebook has 650M active users. They always measure and cite active users, to their credit they do not fudge around with the numbers in their PR Skype is 170M active (quarterly, Facebook is monthly), and 680M total registered. A lot more people have given Skype their payment details than have Facebook - which results in Skype monetizing a lot better (but still not awesome monetization - yet, but it is improving). Edit: Facebook has never published total registered, see http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics It is difficult to apples v apples with skype + facebook since their methodologies vary, but it seems that the fb active user base is ~3x Skype

codeup 15y ago
How many registered users does FB have in total?
- nikcub 15y ago
  I went back as far as I could, and Facebook never released total registered users. It wouldn't be relevant since fan pages, product pages, apps etc. are all in the same namespace, and there would be a lot of spam and dev accounts I remember reading a blog post where somebody tried to calculate it by enumerating user ID's, but he didn't come to a clear conclusion. the FB key numbers are 650M active per month, 50% of that active per day. I wish other companies were as simple and transparent with their own stats PR - instead of nonsense like 'messages processed per fortnight', 'total logins', etc. etc.
danieldk 15y ago
How does one count users? I previously used a Skype account, but now I share a Skype phone with my girlfriend and her account. I'd guess there are plenty of families with one Skype account.
- nikcub 15y ago
  with skype all they do is look at unique logins per financial quarter, so in your scenario (and I assume it is common, because I have my own family members doing the same thing) it will count as a single user perhaps they should adjust their terminology and refer to them as 'accounts' rather than 'users'