Facebook user base tops 500 million

As of this morning, there are now more than 500 million
Facebook users. Put another way, that means about one out
of every 14 people on planet Earth is on Facebook.

Facebook, by far the world’s largest social network,
announced it had crossed the 400 million user threshold
in February of this year, which means the Palo Alto,
California-based company added 100 million new users
in about six months.

“This is an important milestone for all of you who have
helped spread Facebook around the world,” said Facebook
chief executive and founder Mark Zuckerberg in a post on
the official Facebook blog.

“Now a lot more people have the opportunity to stay
connected with the people they care about.”

“Our mission at Facebook is to help make the world more
open and connected,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

“Stories like these are examples of that mission and are
both humbling and inspiring. I could have never imagined
all of the ways people would use Facebook when we were
getting started 6 years ago.”