New era for Facebook as it hits 2B user mark
san francisco — Facebook said on Tuesday that it now counts two billion active monthly users, as the social giant’s founder Mark Zuckerberg highlighted his new mission — not just connecting people, but helping them find common ground.
“As of this morning, the Facebook community is now officially 2 billion people!” Zuckerberg wrote in a post marking the milestone.
“We’re making progress connecting the world, and now let’s bring the world closer together,” he wrote. “It’s an honour to be on this journey with you.”
Facebook’s announcement came as it works to redefine its purpose, led by Zuckerberg who travelled the US this year to better understand what people want out of the social network. “We realise that we need to do more too,” the 33-yearold said in a recent interview with CNN Tech.
“It’s important to give people a voice, to get a diversity of opinions out there, but on top of that, you also need to do this work of building common ground so that way we can all move forward together.”
The firm’s new mission statement says it seeks “to give people the power to build community.”
Zuckerberg’s message was echoed by Naomi Gleit, a vicepresident at the Internet giant, who credited the millions of small communities emerging within Facebook for helping drive growth.
For Gartner analyst Brian Blau, Facebook appears to be striving to become “more of a community company than a technology company.”
We’re making progress connecting the world, and now let’s bring the world closer together. It’s an honour to be on this journey with you Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook
He noted that Facebook’s role in last year’s contentious US election — during which social networks were awash in misinformation — may have been a motivating factor. Founded in 2004, the social media behemoth hit the billionuser mark five years ago.
“These billion levels are significant milestones; and certainly it is a lot of people around the planet,” said Blau. “It goes to show the power of community, and how people are naturally drawn to each other.”
As it has grown, Facebook has updated features to fend off challengers such as Snapchat and adapt to trends such as the migration of news and streaming video online.
In the latest move to deepen its reach, it revealed on Monday it is starting production on high-quality television series and gaming shows to be broadcast on its platform.
Chief among the challenges it faces, Facebook is under pressure — along with other social media giants — to tackle the proliferation of hate speech and extremist content, trolls and misinformation, while safeguarding freedom of speech. —