Happy Birthday Facebook!

Love it or loath it, Facebook is here to stay and continues to grow. This week, the social media giant celebrates its 10th Birthday. And after ten years it has succeeding in holding its position as the largest and most popular social network in the world today. While many pundits are predicting a decline for Facebook, we think the company will continue to develop and grow to suit its audience, and the climate of the internet.

With 1.23 billion active users each month, and a staggering 60% of those visiting the site on a daily basis, Facebook is a leviathan of the internet. No other social media site can boast such incredible figures. Basically, these figures, if put in much simpler terms that are easier to visualize, tell us something amazing:

Facebook is used by 1/4 of the world’s population.

A service as large and powerful as that is not going away any time soon. It has become part of our culture, and a mainstay of every-day life. It’s how we communicate, stay in touch, do business, and share many different aspects of our lives.

Think back to 11 years ago. It’s amazing, but we did not use terms like ‘unfriend’, ‘unlike’ or ‘poke’. There are kids using Facebook now who never experienced life without these terms!

Facebook’s mobile offering has had more than its fair share of negative feedback. In fact, every time Facebook makes a change it receives a barrage of complaint and horror from users. But most of them get used to the changes and stay loyal.

The biggest problem Facebook has is that it is so huge. Mums Dads, grandparents, and entire extended families are now on the site. As a result, platforms like ‘SnapChat’ and ‘Tumblr’ have grown in popularity as young people make the move to get away from their parents online. We don’t think this will significantly affect the huge numbers however. Most people use Facebook in addition to other niche platforms.

We believe Facebook will continue to dominate the internet because it will continue to be socially relevant. It will remain socially relevant because it’s us, the users, who make the content, and while we are in charge of what we post, we are always going to find it relevant, aren’t we?

It is going to be interesting so see how Facebook changes over the next ten years.