Facebook: Infographics, Facts, and Figures- Oh My

When I first graduated from College, I began a career as a Stock Broker on Wall Street (before I began my beloved career at Cisco).  In the midst of studying for my Series 7, Google began to be publicly traded.  With Caviar dreams, and a tuna fish budget- I was unable to invest.  I KNEW in my soul that this was the verge of something amazing- more than data base searches and images, but to my dismay, and poverty, could not get in on it.  This was long before the phenomenon which presented such wonderful things as Google Finance, Wallet, Reader, and Docs (my personal favorite for the real time sharing)... even Google+ (despite the crickets- I have not discounted them yet).  I vowed if I ever felt that passionately about something again, and had a few bucks to invest, I would.  So when Facebook went public, I decided I was not missing out again...

 As we all know Facebook Inc. began trading publicly last Friday following one of the most anticipated stock offerings in history. Sure, there was a lot of hype. There was a superfluous range of doubting Thomas' and first time loyal FB stock purchasers. Speculations ensued and the future is not yet predicted. The initial public offering of stock priced at $38 a day earlier. It was at the top end of a projected range that Facebook had already increased just days earlier.

Although many investors had hoped for a big first-day pop, Facebook’s stock opened last Friday at $42.05 and fluctuated between $45 and $38 throughout the day. It closed barely above its IPO price, at $38.23. Here’s how Facebook’s stock has traded since the IPO:

— Friday, May 18: Closed at $38.23, up 0.6 percent from IPO price.

— Monday, May 21: Closed at $34.03, down 11 percent for the day, down 10 percent from IPO price

— Tuesday, May 22: Closed at $31, down 9 percent for the day, down 19 percent for the week, down 18 percent from IPO price

— Wednesday, May 23: Closed at $32, up 3 percent for the day, down 16 percent for the week, down 16 percent from IPO price

Jay McBain Co-Founder of ChannelEyes www.channeleyes.com and long time futurist had the following to say in FB defense: "We should be careful on making any quick conclusions on Facebook. They were priced what experts thought the market could support - then the market corrected it downwards. As of right now, Facebook is worth $67B - more than HP and Dell COMBINED. I would count that as an excellent return for shareholders and an important bellwether of the new cloud economy"

I could not agree more.  I have purchased FB Stock.  Why?  Because I believe it's full potential is limitless. One out of every 7 people on Earth are currently on FB!  Aristotle once said, "I am not a citizen of Athens or Greece, but of the world"- that statement could not be more true than it is today- thanks to social media platforms such as Facebook.  What if we can use those connections to spread awareness, unite nations, eliminate differences, share ideas, cure disease, unify societies.  What if we can use it for good?

Thanks to Mark's lovely new bride Priscilla Chan-Zuckerberg they are addressing huge health concerns in US and UK. On average, 18 people in the United States die each day waiting for an organ transplant. Zuckerberg and his wife want to use the social networking site to "help solve the crisis" by allowing users to volunteer as potential organ donors in the United States and the United Kingdom.  More than 114,000 people in the United States are awaiting organ donations, 79 people on an average day receive a transplant while 18 die, according to Organdonor.gov. The site says more than 100 million people in the U.S. are registered donors."We could save thousands more lives a year if we had another 20, 30, 40 million more people registered," said David Fleming, president and CEO of Donate Life America, which is partnering with Facebook in this effort.  More than 10,000 people in the United Kingdom need a transplant, according to the website for NHS Blood and Transplant.  A Facebook user will also see a Share Your Donor Status link when a friend's donor update hits their news feed.  "The Facebook partnership is an opportunity for people to share decisions," Fleming said. "The most important part of this is actually registering to be a donor so that your wishes can be carried out. Sharing that decision through Facebook is an opportunity to encourage your friends and family to also register."  We can save lives, we can help change the world.

George Takei, Actor, Star Trek Legend, and FB Comic Extraordinaire recently posted one of the funniest things I have read in a long time;  It said "FACT:  In the future I will tell my grandsons that I am older than the Internet and blow their minds forever".  The internet has indeed changed the world, as is the venue which I read this quote - Facebook- which has become a way of life unlike anything we have ever seen before.  Love it, or hate it, you have heard of FB. Regardless of your feelings, I have decided to share some facts that are interesting to some, unknown by most, and will enhance your knowledge of the largest social network in the world.

Here are 75 fun filled FB Facts, followed by a collection of infographics to help shed some light:

1. The initial valuation of Facebook was $75 billion to $100 billion 
2. 1 in every 7 people on Earth is on Facebook
3. 35+ demographic represents more than 30% of the entire user base
4. 71.2 % of all USA internet users are on Facebook
5. In 20 minutes 1,000,000 links are shared on Facebook
6. In 20 minutes 1,484,000 event invites are posted
7. In 20 minutes 1,323,000 photos are tagged
8. In 20 minutes 1,851,000 status updates are entered
9. In 20 minutes 1.972 million friend requests are accepted
10. In 20 minutes 2,716,000 photos are uploaded
11. In 20 minutes 2,716,000 messages are sent
12. In 20 minutes 10.2 million comments are posted
13. In 20 minutes 1,587,000 wall posts are written
14. 750 million photos were uploaded to Facebook over New Year’s weekend
15. 48% of young Americans said they found out about news through Facebook
16. 48% of 18 to 34 year olds check Facebook right when they wake up
17. 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day
18. Average user has 130 friends
19. People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
20. There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
21. Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
22. Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
23. More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
24. More than 70 translations available on the site
25. About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
26. Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
27. Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
28. People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day
29. Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
30. Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day
31. More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites
32. There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices
33. People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
34. There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
35. Al Pacino’s face was on the original Facebook homepage
36. One early Facebook function was a file sharing service
37. The first “Work Networks” as well as the original educational networks  included Apple and Microsoft
38. The meaning of the term poke has never been defined
39. There is an ‘App’ to see what’s on the Facebook cafe menu
40. Mark Zuckerburg (CEO of Facebook) calls himself a “Harvard Graduate” when in fact he didn’t graduate (apparently his reply is that “there isn’t a setting for dropout”)
41. Australian’s spend more time per month on Facebook than any other country at over 7 hours on average
42. A Facebook employee hoodie sold for $4,000 on eBay
43. Facebook was initially bank-rolled by Peter Thiel the co-founder of PayPal for $500,000
44. It is the biggest website by traffic, recently beating Google!
45. Facebook is now valued at approximately $80 billion
46. Facebook makes money through advertising  and virtual products
47. Facebook was almost shut down by a lawsuit by ConnectU who claimed that Zuckerburg stole the idea and Technology for Facebook (the issue was settled out of court)
48. The USA has the largest Facebook user base with 155 million people which represents 23.6% of Facebook’s total users
49. There is over 16,000,000 Facebook fan pages
50. Texas Hold’em Poker is the most popular Facebook page with over 41 million fans
51. Facebook was originally bankrolled by a co-founder of Paypal for $500,000
52. There is evidence that founder Mark Zuckerberg stole many of the ideas and much of the code from ConnectU. They sued Facebook and settled for an undisclosed amount.
53. 400,000,000 people log into their profile at least once a month
54. Half of those people log in every day.
55. 70% of Facebook users live outside of the US.
56. 44.1% of Denmark has an active Facebook profile.
57. It now beats Google for getting more traffic!
58. Yahoo! tried to buy Facebook in 2006 for $1,000,000,000.
59. 8,300,000,000 hours are spent on Facebook monthly.
60. The fastest growing demographic in America on Facebook: Women 55+.
61. FAD is a mental disorder – Facebook Addiction Disorder. FAD. Ironic.
62. Court notices and summons sent through Facebook are legal and binding in Australia.
63. Women age 55+ are the fastest growing demographic
64.  Facebook is worth $67B - more than HP and Dell COMBINED
65. Facebook under-indexes in visit share from the most affluent income group. With that said, Facebook’s size more than makes up the difference; the site wins 499,949,430 visits from the most affluent income group versus YouTube’s 223,732,591 visits and Twitter’s 15,166,795 visits.
66. Facebook became the number one ranked website in the U.S. on March 9, 2010.
67. The ages of Facebook ovisitors are indicative of the website’s strength in the marketplace, with relative parity in distribution of its visit share by age versus the overall online population.
68. Facebook captures one in every eleven Internet visits in the U.S.
69. One in every five page views online occurs on Facebook.
70. The average visit time on Facebook is 20 minutes.
71. Facebook.com’s audience skews slightly more female than the online population as a whole.
72. “Facebook” is the most searched-for term in the U.S. and Facebook-related terms account for 14 percent of the top search clicks.
73. Internationally, Facebook.com ranks in the top two websites in every market except China, where Sina Weibo, Baidu Zhidao and Renren are the dominant social networks.Facebook.com’s largest footprint is in Canada, capturing almost 12 percent of all visits in that market. It also recently surpassed Orkut, placing it behind only Google Brazil in market share.
74. Microsoft tried to buy FB for $15 Billion and was turned down
75. FB currently has more than 901 million active users!

How does FB stack up against other social networking sites? Well, here are some stats based upon age demographics:

The ages of Facebook of visitors are indicative of the website’s strength in the marketplace, with relative parity in distribution of its visit share by age versus the overall online population.

Facebook under-indexes in visit share from the most affluent income group. With that said, Facebook’s size more than makes up the difference; the site wins 499,949,430 visits from the most affluent income group versus YouTube’s 223,732,591 visits and Twitter’s 15,166,795 visits.

Facebook captures one in every eleven Internet visits in the U.S.

One in every five page views online occurs on Facebook.

The average visit time on Facebook is 20 minutes.

Facebook.com’s audience skews slightly more female than the online population as a whole.

Facebook became the number one ranked website in the U.S. on March 9, 2010.

“Facebook” is the most searched-for term in the U.S. and Facebook-related terms account for 14 percent of the top search clicks.

Facebook users are highly loyal to the website; 96 percent were returning visitors in January 2012.

Internationally, Facebook.com ranks in the top two websites in every market except China, where Sina Weibo, Baidu Zhidao and Renren are the dominant social networks.Facebook.com’s largest footprint is in Canada, capturing almost 12 percent of all visits in that market. It also recently surpassed Orkut, placing it behind only Google Brazil in market share.

Facebook is the largest website in the U.S. and a top performer in numerous international markets.

The fan base of the site is loyal and spends a significant portion of their time online on the social network. Facebook’s influence is seen in the presidential elections, digital shopping habits and beyond. Where will Facebook take us, it is my opinion that the possibilities are endless.  

Information sourced from:  Alex Trimpe Vimeo Video* Facebook Press Statistics* AllFacebook.com* Comscore.com* Jeff Bulles* Heather Dougherty, Hitwise North America* Dan Zarella, Science of Facebook Marketing webinar* HubSpot * Mashable