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> Facebook daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 1.88 billion on average for March 2021, an increase of 8% year-over-year. > Facebook monthly active users (MAU

> Facebook daily active users (DAUs) – DAUs were 1.88 billion on average for March 2021, an increase of 8% year-over-year. > Facebook monthly active users (MAUs) – MAUs were 2.85 billion as of March 31, 2021, an increase of 10% year-over-year. Let this be another sign that Facebook's demise is greatly exaggerated: their daily & monthly active user counts are _still growing_ ... and by non-trivial amounts. Almost _2 billion_ people visit Facebook at least once _daily_ .... that's mind-blowing. Yes, I know: the common HN refrain is "how many are fake / bot accounts?" etc. etc. Until that's proven to be a real problem, which would lead to significant lawsuits for misleading shareholders, I will lean on the hypothesis that the significant majority of this growth is "real." You can play "chicken little" all you want and say "Facebook will go away just like MySpace," but doubters should be sweating right now, as the numbers refuse to show that.

deleted 5y ago
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JohnJamesRambo 5y ago
Why would I be sweating that Facebook is adding users? Disappointed, more like, because the science shows that Facebook actively damages people’s mental health and I hope we all want people to feel good. Your numbers show that a almost 2 billion people feel worse each day from Facebook.
- s3r3nity 5y ago
  If I drink enough water to kill myself from water poisoning / overhydration, that isn't a good reason to ban water. It's more like "user error." Too much of _anything_ is bad. So it's a strong claim to say "2 billion people feel worse each day," when it could be that the majority use it in moderation and probably feel some positive utility from it.
- baby 5y ago
  > because the science shows that Facebook actively damages people’s mental health come on...
gogopuppygogo 5y ago
Facebook has made their product emotionally addictive. Their biggest threat now is regulatory changes to consumer data. I haven’t read the filings but I’d expect their lobbying efforts to be in full gear.
jjmorrison 5y ago
Bots or not - that $25B is coming from somewhere. I'm most sad that so many smart humans are working on this of all the important problems in the world. Makes loads of money though, so won't change until incentives change.
- cm2012 5y ago
  Solving world hunger is obviously better than ads, but I'd say in the scheme of things tech people spend their time on, ad improvements is middling in importance? It's not the bottom. Good ad targeting means: 1) New small businesses (on Shopify) can reach customers without going through retail gatekeepers. Ask any Shopify seller, nothing beats FB. 2) New challenger SaaS brands can get in front of customers to compete with mammoth corporate brands with worse software (I see this all the time on my job). 3) Without good ad targeting, only bottom hanging fruit advertisers that appeal to the lowest common denominator can afford to spend. Weight loss, teeth whitening, etc. Good ad targeting means a better user experience with ads.
- truth_ 5y ago
  Not completely unrelated: FB makes killer programming tools loved by most. - PyTorch for Deep Learning overtook TensorFlow in Academia and Competitions and breathing down the neck in Industry despite the latter having significant inertia. - React.js is THE hottest frontend framework now. - GraphQL is highly adopted in the industry. I want FB to exist as long as possible and very successfully as I do not want the tools to go away. I have worked with two of the three, and I love them. It had made me fond of and loyal to FB and FAIR.
  - azangru 5y ago
    > React.js is THE hottest frontend framework now. I am not quite sure what you mean by "the hottest". Would you say that jquery was THE hottest frontend library circa 2014, or that Wordpress it THE hottest CMS now? React is hugely popular, no doubt about it. It absolutely was the hottest frontend framework somewhere around 2015. It's more complicated now, I think.
- s3r3nity 5y ago
nine_k 5y ago
Quite interesting that the ad revenue growth is mostly from ads commanding a higher price, and only marginally because they serve more ads. FB's targeting is pretty good, if for no other reason then because they see all the social stuff users do even without the need for crutches like third-party cookies. Likely customers are willing to pay increasingly more for a well-targeted ad.
purple_ferret 5y ago
>Almost _2 billion_ people visit Facebook at least once _daily_ .... that's mind-blowing. Does daily active users mean that? Or is it just the amount of users who visit facebook on any given day?
- dmode 5y ago
  Isn’t your definition monthly active ?

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

JohnJamesRambo 5y ago

Why would I be sweating that Facebook is adding users? Disappointed, more like, because the science shows that Facebook actively damages people’s mental health and I hope we all want people to feel good. Your numbers show that a almost 2 billion people feel worse each day from Facebook.

s3r3nity 5y ago
If I drink enough water to kill myself from water poisoning / overhydration, that isn't a good reason to ban water. It's more like "user error." Too much of _anything_ is bad. So it's a strong claim to say "2 billion people feel worse each day," when it could be that the majority use it in moderation and probably feel some positive utility from it.
baby 5y ago
> because the science shows that Facebook actively damages people’s mental health come on...

gogopuppygogo 5y ago

Facebook has made their product emotionally addictive. Their biggest threat now is regulatory changes to consumer data. I haven’t read the filings but I’d expect their lobbying efforts to be in full gear.

jjmorrison 5y ago

Bots or not - that $25B is coming from somewhere. I'm most sad that so many smart humans are working on this of all the important problems in the world. Makes loads of money though, so won't change until incentives change.

cm2012 5y ago
Solving world hunger is obviously better than ads, but I'd say in the scheme of things tech people spend their time on, ad improvements is middling in importance? It's not the bottom. Good ad targeting means: 1) New small businesses (on Shopify) can reach customers without going through retail gatekeepers. Ask any Shopify seller, nothing beats FB. 2) New challenger SaaS brands can get in front of customers to compete with mammoth corporate brands with worse software (I see this all the time on my job). 3) Without good ad targeting, only bottom hanging fruit advertisers that appeal to the lowest common denominator can afford to spend. Weight loss, teeth whitening, etc. Good ad targeting means a better user experience with ads.
truth_ 5y ago
Not completely unrelated: FB makes killer programming tools loved by most. - PyTorch for Deep Learning overtook TensorFlow in Academia and Competitions and breathing down the neck in Industry despite the latter having significant inertia. - React.js is THE hottest frontend framework now. - GraphQL is highly adopted in the industry. I want FB to exist as long as possible and very successfully as I do not want the tools to go away. I have worked with two of the three, and I love them. It had made me fond of and loyal to FB and FAIR.
- azangru 5y ago
  > React.js is THE hottest frontend framework now. I am not quite sure what you mean by "the hottest". Would you say that jquery was THE hottest frontend library circa 2014, or that Wordpress it THE hottest CMS now? React is hugely popular, no doubt about it. It absolutely was the hottest frontend framework somewhere around 2015. It's more complicated now, I think.
s3r3nity 5y ago

nine_k 5y ago

Quite interesting that the ad revenue growth is mostly from ads commanding a higher price, and only marginally because they serve more ads. FB's targeting is pretty good, if for no other reason then because they see all the social stuff users do even without the need for crutches like third-party cookies. Likely customers are willing to pay increasingly more for a well-targeted ad.

purple_ferret 5y ago

>Almost _2 billion_ people visit Facebook at least once _daily_ .... that's mind-blowing. Does daily active users mean that? Or is it just the amount of users who visit facebook on any given day?

dmode 5y ago
Isn’t your definition monthly active ?