Facebook Gets Facelift

The #2 social networking site last week unveiled a new look with some pretty cool features. While MySpace gets all the media (and user) attention, Facebook has had a pretty good 12 months.

At the unveiling of Facebook Platform, Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerman rattled of the following numbers (courtesy of Mashable.com).

General Growth

• More than 24 million active users
• More than 100,000 new registrations per day since Jan. 2007
• An average of 3 percent weekly growth since Jan. 2007
• Active users have doubled since Facebook expanded registration in Sept. 2006

User Demographics

• Over 47,000 regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks
• More than half of Facebook users are outside of college
• The fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older
• Maintain 85 percent market share of 4-year U.S. universities

User Engagement

• Sixth-most trafficked site in the United States*
• More than 40 billion page views per month in May 2007
• More than half of active users return daily
• People spend an average of 20 minutes on the site daily*

Applications

• No. 1 photo sharing application on the web*
• Photo application draws more than twice as much traffic as the next three sites combined*
• More than 1.8 billion photos on the site
• More than 6 million active user groups on the site

International Growth

• Canada has the most users outside of the United States, with more than 2.5 million active users
• The U.K. is the third largest country with more than 1.4 million active users
• Remaining Top 10 countries in order of active users (outside of the U.S., Canada and UK): Norway,
• Australia, South Africa, Lebanon, Egypt, Sweden and India

*Source: comScore Media Metrix

Some of the numbers that caught my eye were that the fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older while Facebook maintains an 85% market share of 4-year U.S. universities. So if your target audience is college students or the 25-30 audience, then you have to have a presence on Facebook or you are missing a prime opportunity to reach this audience.

How many people knew that Facebook was the #1 photo sharing application on the web? If your market has anything to with digital photography, you should be extremely visible on Facebook.

These are pretty impressive numbers. When Facebook announced last year that they would open up their network to non-college students a lot of naysayer’s thought this was a bad move. Last weeks presentation shows that Facebook is alive and kicking and taking names too.