Facebook is now used by 30 million people in the UK, approximately half of the UK population, it said today.
Joanna Shields
Joanna Shields, vice president of sales and business development at Facebook, made the announcement this morning at a media conference in London.
She said: “We can announced to day that we have reached 30 million in the UK, which we are really excited about.”
Globally, Facebook has more than 500 million registered users, a milestone it hit last summer. Last July, it also revealed that it had 26 million registered UK users. In the last eight months, it has attracted four million extra UK users, bringing the UK total to 30 million.
Last year, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder and chief executive, said it was “almost a guarantee” that the site would hit one billion users, while speaking at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. He explained: “If we succeed [in innovating and remaining relevant] there is a good chance of bringing this [Facebook] to a billion people…it will be interesting to see how it plays out."
One third of women aged 18 to 34 check Facebook when they first wake up, before even going to the toilet, according to research.
Shields was speaking this morning at the Financial Times Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference about the power Facebook’s referrals can bring to media sites, such as newspapers and TV services.
She said that the average Facebook user has 130 friends who they share links to media sites with on a regular basis. Media companies which take advantage of that are really seeing the benefits.
Shields refused to be drawn on whether Facebook would develop its own mobile phone operating system and also said it was “silly" that Google had recently disabled the feature which allowed Google users to sync their contacts with Facebook friends.
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Facebook 'used by half the UK population' - Telegraph
via telegraph.co.uk
