Special Report

50 Fascinating Facts About Facebook

Nick Gulley, John Harrington

Published: February 2, 2018 3:42 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 3:47 am

Since its launch on Feb. 4, 2004, Facebook, for better or worse, has had an impact on American society.

The social network has become a cultural phenomenon, partly because it is the least-exclusive club to join — and it is free. Anyone over the age of 13 with access to a computer can create a customized profile with their name, occupation, schools attended, and other information to connect with the outside world.

We spend 35 minutes a day on Facebook — more time than reading or doing exercise — checking our notifications, likes or comments, and photos or videos. We also look up old high school crushes and exchange animated banter with those who agree or disagree with us politically — or on any other matter. Facebook has become a digital public square.

Facebook has emphasized community, and to that end users are able to join groups of people with the same interest, whether it is about work, hobbies, political leanings, or school. The site allows users to block or “unfriend” those they deem unpleasant.

As of Jan. 1, 2018, Facebook had more than 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. That’s considerably more than the population of any country on Earth.

As the 14th anniversary of the launch of Facebook approaches, 24/7 Wall St. has compiled 50 surprising facts about the social network colossus. We gathered information from a variety of sources, among them Facebook.com, to create the list.

Click here to see 50 fascinating facts about Facebook.
Click here to read our detailed findings and methodology.

Source: Stephen Lam / Getty Images

The Facebook “like” button has been pressed 1.13 trillion times.

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Source: Barack Obama / Facebook

A photo on Facebook of President Barack Obama embracing his wife on his re-election in 2012 received about 4.4 million likes, the most of any photo on Facebook.

Source: Fredex8 / iStock

79% of American internet users, or 68% of all U.S adults, use Facebook.

Source: Omar Havana / Getty Images

In 2015, Facebook’s market share of worldwide mobile internet advertising revenue was 22%.

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Source: Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Shakira is the most popular musician on Facebook with more than 100 million likes.

Source: Carl Court / Getty Images

Facebook’s user base grows by 8 people per second.

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Source: diego_cervo / Getty Images

150,000 messages are sent on Facebook every minute.

Source: Chris Jackson / Getty Images

The average time spent on Facebook per visit is 20 minutes, and the average monthly time a user spends on Facebook is 600 minutes.

Source: chombosan / Getty Images

66% of Facebook users get their news from the site.

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The New Oxford Dictionary announced that the 2009 Word of the Year was “unfriend.”

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66% of teenage girls claim to have been bullied on Facebook.

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Source: Pekic / iStock

450 million people buy and sell items on Facebook each month.

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Source: JaysonPhotography / iStock

Users have 155 friends on average on Facebook.

Source: Chris Jackson / Getty Images

Posts published on Facebook between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. have 88% more interactions on average than at other times of the day.

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Source: AntonioGuillem / iStock

100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook daily.

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Users make 2.5 billion comments on Facebook every month.

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Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

You can’t block Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook.

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Bing Predicts: Super Bowl LII

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33% of divorced couples cite Facebook as a reason for splitting up.

Source: maksicfoto / Getty Images

There are 270 million fake or clone profiles on Facebook.

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Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Posts on Facebook ending in questions get 162% more interactions than posts that don’t.

Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

There were 2.13 billion active monthly users on Facebook as of the fourth quarter of 2017, a 14% increase from the same period a year ago.

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Source: Cindy Ord / Getty Images for SiriusXM

Al Pacino was the first person to have his or her face on Facebook.

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States With the Best and Worst Diets

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The “like” button was originally the “awesome” button.

Source: Kevin Lee / Getty Images

In 2018, there will be an estimated 616 million Facebook users in China even though it has been illegal to log on to the social media site there since 2009.

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Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Facebook loses nearly $25,000 every minute the site is down globally.

Source: KazanovskyAndrey / iStock

You can change your Facebook language to Pirate.

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Source: Paul Marotta / Getty Images

With Facebook stock growing an average of 32% a year, Mark Zuckerberg is on track to be a trillionaire by 2024.

Source: Sonya Mann / Flickr

In 2016, Facebook paid $50 million to 140 media companies and celebrities to post videos on its new live video feature.

Source: SasinParaksa / iStock

50% of adults 18-24 check Facebook before anything else when they wake up.

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Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

In 2006, Facebook turned down an $800 million offer from Yahoo.

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There are 600,000 hacking attempts on Facebook accounts every day.

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Source: MarcBruxelle / iStock

30 million dead people had accounts within the first 8 years of Facebook’s existence.

Source: Chris Jackson / Getty Images

The primary color scheme of Facebook is blue because Mark Zuckerberg has red-green colorblindness.

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1 in 3 people have become dissatisfied with their lives after going on Facebook, according to one study.

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In Australia, legally binding court documents can be sent over Facebook.

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41% of people have Facebook Addiction Disorder. This condition is defined as spending so much time on Facebook that it affects the healthy balance of an individual’s life.

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Source: bombuscreative / Getty Images

Smartphone users check Facebook 14 times per day.

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Source: Jason Kempin / Getty Images for Common Sense Media

Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin renounced his U.S. citizenship, likely to avoid paying $700 million in taxes.

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One gram of your DNA can store all of the data on Facebook and Google.

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Source: Sean Gallup / Getty Images

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most-followed world leader on Facebook with 43.1 million followers; President Donald Trump is second with 23.1 million.

Source: DGLimages / Getty Images

The most common type of friend to unfriend is a high school acquaintance.

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Almost 70% of teens are friends with their parents on Facebook.

Source: Courtesy of 20th Television

“The Simpsons” television show has the most Facebook fans (69.6 million).

Source: Thinkstock

The country with the most active Facebook users is Canada.

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Source: ChiccoDodiFC / iStock

Facebook users watch a collective 4 billion videos per day, 75% of them on mobile devices.

Source: Neilson Barnard / Getty Images for New York Times

Venture capitalist Peter Thiel was the first investor in Facebook in 2004.

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Source: Facemash / Facebook

Facebook’s first name was Facemash.

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States With the Best (and Worst) Schools

Source: EgudinKa / iStock

In 2016, a glitch caused 2 million users, including Mark Zuckerberg, to be marked as dead.

Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Sean Parker, co-founder of defunct music sharing site Napster, originally bought the facebook.com domain name for $200,000.

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Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Mark Zuckerberg makes a $1 a year salary as CEO of Facebook.

Detailed Findings & Methodology

Facebook’s influence on American life cannot be understated. Just six years after it was founded, Facebook was the subject of the movie “The Social Network.” Half of young adults check Facebook as soon as they wake up. The social media network has turned the word “friend” into a verb. In 2009, the New Oxford Dictionary announced that the Word of the Year was “unfriend.” Facebook is the preferred source for information by its users — 66% of them go to the social network for news.

Facebook’s popularity has been accompanied by scrutiny over privacy issues and the possible psychologically addictive effects it might have on users. In one study, 33% of divorced couples blamed their breakup on Facebook. Some employers say the social network is a distraction in the workplace and restrict access to Facebook.

Other issues have shadowed the social media network. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has confronted criticism for allowing fake news and hate speech on the social network platform, which may have had an impact in outcomes such as the 2016 presidential election. Earlier this year, Facebook changed its algorithms to focus users’ news feeds on friends and family and less on public content from businesses and media outlets.

Zuckerberg is the latest Harvard University dropout to disrupt the status quo, following in the footsteps of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook in his dorm room when he was 19-years-old before dropping out of school to build the business. At 33, he is now the richest millennial entrepreneur in the world with a net worth of $72.4 billion.

Zuckerberg has turned Facebook into a money-making machine. The social media network, which went public in 2012 with the largest technology IPO in U.S. history, today has a market capitalization of $561 billion. The company makes about 80% of its revenue from advertising and 20% from online games. Facebook’s robust mobile advertising business helped the social network top revenue and profit expectations in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Facebook has also acquired several companies, including instant messenger WhatsApp, photo-sharing site Instagram, and the virtual reality business Oculus VR, to expand its offerings, technology, and money-making abilities.

Until someone builds a better mousetrap, Facebook will continue to dominate social networking. Here are 50 surprising facts about Facebook.