Business

Facebook, with 1B users, hunts profits

Facebook is well on its way to connecting most of the world’s population. The next challenge is getting paid for it.

The social network announced yesterday it had topped 1 billion members — or roughly one-seventh of the global population.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who famously founded the website in his dorm room as a Harvard undergrad, marked the milestone on his Facebook page yesterday.

“Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life,” he wrote.

By the end of the day, the number of active users had probably reached 1.012 billion, as the site has been growing at a rapid clip of about 600,000 new users a day in the past year.

Facebook also rolled out its first TV spot to celebrate the occasion. The video — which opens with a chair hovering in mid-air — tries to tap into people’s yearning to connect with each other.

“Chairs are for people,” the spot intones. “And that is why chairs are like Facebook.”

“These are things people use to get together so they can open up and connect,” the ad continues.

While there is no doubt about Facebook’s impact on the world, there is no shortage of skeptics when it comes to Facebook’s ability to monetize its massive audience.

Its shares have lost nearly half their value since the company went public at $38 a share in May. The stock rose slightly yesterday to close at $21.95.

Facebook’s figures show clearly that the next billion users will come from areas where the company derives less money per member.

In the Western world, Facebook generates up to $3.20 from every user; in developing areas, where growth is greatest, the average is as low as 44 cents a user.

Facebook said yesterday the countries that most contributed to its latest push included Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia and India. The first 100 million mostly came from the US, Canada and the UK.