Facebook turns 20 years today

Facebook, the largest social media platform, is commemorating 20 years since Mark Zuckerberg founded the company.

Social media has emerged as one of the most widely used tools in the world. Across all apps currently in use, there are over 5 billion users, which represents a 5.6% increase from 2023.

In honour of Facebook’s 20th anniversary on February 4, the portal We Are Social released a report on social networks and their respective user bases. Facebook is still the most used social media platform, or at least the one with the most users, even though it is not the most well-liked in 2024.

It added 2.95 billion users in 2023, 1.65% more than in 2022, and at the start of 2024, it crossed the 3 billion user threshold. Additionally, Mark Zuckerberg is the owner of the following group of companies in addition to Facebook: WhatsApp (2,000 million users), Instagram (2,000 million users), Messenger (979 million users), and Facebook (3,049 million users).

Ranking of the most used social networks in the world

Facebook: 3.049bln users
YouTube: 2.491bln users
WhatsApp: 2bln users
Instagram: 2bln users
TikTok: 1.562bln users
WeChat: 1.336bln users
FB Messenger: 979m users
Telegram: 800m users
Douyin: 752m users
Snapchat: 750m users

The beginning of Facebook
At the esteemed Harvard University, Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes launched Facebook with the goal of taking it outside of the academic setting. To finance this expansion, they looked to investment funds.