Facebook Surpasses 350 Million Users And Prepares To Roll Out New Privacy Settings

This evening Mark Zuckerberg posted about the company surpassing the 350 million user threshold, less than one month after we reported on the company crossing the 325 million mark. It’s a substantial milestone for the company and at this rate there’s a chance that they could easily surpass 375 million by the end of the year. Regardless of the ongoing growth, more significant changes to the Facebook system lie ahead.

The first of which is the rolling out of the new privacy system which the company first showed off to reporters back in July. In addition to a new privacy system, Facebook continues to test their new homepage with users, something we’ve received multiple emails about. As these changes move forward, users will no doubt go through a significant adjustment phase, however Facebook is focused on refining the system toward a perfect user experience.

While the user experience will be changing, the biggest announcement is about Facebook’s new user base which continues to expand dramatically. Some analytics sources show the company attracting over 400 million unique visitors a month, however not all of those are necessarily registered users. Maintaining a platform which supports the largest user base of any social platform in the world take a significant amount of effort.

However Facebook continues to improve their technologies to manage this remarkable growth and is continuing to hire employees, surpassing 1,000 employees the last time we checked. As the changes roll out over the coming weeks, we will keep users up to date about how to manage their Facebook accounts most effectively as each change can often generate a substantial amount of confusion.

With 350 million users, there’s a good chance that most of your friends are already on the site. Do you have any friends that don’t use Facebook?

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889110 Comments2009-12-02+03%3A20%3A53Nick+O%27Neill »

AMAZING. I attend several offline business networking groups and at each one I advertise that we design custom Fan Pages. This will make it even easier to sell.

Thanks for all your info. It is sooooo useful.

Comment by Jarrett Gucci — December 1, 2009 @ 6:33 pm
I was told last week that my friends 89 year old grandmother was on Facebook. The site seems to be surpassing all age barriers and demographics, which in turn increases its power to reach your brands audience. I look forward to seeing their what the new Privacy settings will be.

thanks for the great article!

Comment by Lucinda Callie — December 1, 2009 @ 6:39 pm
It's about time! This is what really got me excited:

"We're adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload."

Having this would *finally* mean complete control of content. If I've been tagged in a photo that I don't want certain people to see, why do I have to untag myself? I should be able to keep myself tagged and set privacy settings for that individual photo so that select individuals or Friend Lists won't see it.

Comment by ziggyonice — December 1, 2009 @ 6:49 pm
tons of friends who don't use facebook.

Comment by Tobias Schwarz — December 1, 2009 @ 7:49 pm
All the new changes suck. Why can't they leave well enough alone. They've got the number one social site and then they gotta go and muck it up. Already looking for the next alternative. Maybe back to MySpace,at least they are consistent.

Comment by Randy Williams — December 1, 2009 @ 7:57 pm
I have dozens of friends in their 20s and 30s alone who don't have Facebook accounts, either out of choice or lack of interest. I know a few who don't have cellphones. You'd be surprised.

I have a question about this new policy change, Nick. Do you know if friend lists (and the privacy abilities for each) will remain intact?

Comment by Ari Herzog — December 1, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
@Nick Great reporting.

@Ari I believe friend lists and private settings for them will remain – but previous options were too complex and many users never created friend lists- so defaults will be simpler. You will however be able to keep friends lists and privacy settings for them:
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=1014703521...

Comment by Dave Kerpen — December 1, 2009 @ 8:30 pm
Facebook keeps changing and changing and will go down doing so. Most of my friends do not have Facebook, and some have abandoned they're profiles. i predict the ghost town network of the future.

Comment by Facecrook — December 2, 2009 @ 4:03 pm
Facebook is going to have a massive affect on the Perth Builders and also Perth building brokers.
After seeing the movie last night, I now know http://www.nhbb.com.au
respects private details, not sure the home builders do.
Is it the new web?

Comment by NHBB — April 26, 2011 @ 9:34 am
Apparently facebook doubled its revenue on the last 6 months, even though some people were saying numbers were down. Either way, they're building a huge brand which Google+ is going to find hard to knock off! We've begun our facebook page for http://www.yourbuildingbroker.com.au and have found our clients starting to post their home building journeys there – it's a great sharing platform that's for sure!

Comment by Building Brokers — September 9, 2011 @ 11:09 pm

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AMAZING. I attend several offline business networking groups and at each one I advertise that we design custom Fan Pages. This will make it even easier to sell.

Thanks for all your info. It is sooooo useful.

Comment by Jarrett Gucci — December 1, 2009 @ 6:33 pm

I was told last week that my friends 89 year old grandmother was on Facebook. The site seems to be surpassing all age barriers and demographics, which in turn increases its power to reach your brands audience. I look forward to seeing their what the new Privacy settings will be.

thanks for the great article!

Comment by Lucinda Callie — December 1, 2009 @ 6:39 pm

It's about time! This is what really got me excited:

"We're adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload."

Having this would *finally* mean complete control of content. If I've been tagged in a photo that I don't want certain people to see, why do I have to untag myself? I should be able to keep myself tagged and set privacy settings for that individual photo so that select individuals or Friend Lists won't see it.

Comment by ziggyonice — December 1, 2009 @ 6:49 pm

tons of friends who don't use facebook.

Comment by Tobias Schwarz — December 1, 2009 @ 7:49 pm

All the new changes suck. Why can't they leave well enough alone. They've got the number one social site and then they gotta go and muck it up. Already looking for the next alternative. Maybe back to MySpace,at least they are consistent.

Comment by Randy Williams — December 1, 2009 @ 7:57 pm

I have dozens of friends in their 20s and 30s alone who don't have Facebook accounts, either out of choice or lack of interest. I know a few who don't have cellphones. You'd be surprised.

I have a question about this new policy change, Nick. Do you know if friend lists (and the privacy abilities for each) will remain intact?

Comment by Ari Herzog — December 1, 2009 @ 8:21 pm

@Nick Great reporting.

@Ari I believe friend lists and private settings for them will remain – but previous options were too complex and many users never created friend lists- so defaults will be simpler. You will however be able to keep friends lists and privacy settings for them:
http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=1014703521...

Comment by Dave Kerpen — December 1, 2009 @ 8:30 pm

Facebook keeps changing and changing and will go down doing so. Most of my friends do not have Facebook, and some have abandoned they're profiles. i predict the ghost town network of the future.

Comment by Facecrook — December 2, 2009 @ 4:03 pm

Facebook is going to have a massive affect on the Perth Builders and also Perth building brokers.
After seeing the movie last night, I now know http://www.nhbb.com.au
respects private details, not sure the home builders do.
Is it the new web?

Comment by NHBB — April 26, 2011 @ 9:34 am

Apparently facebook doubled its revenue on the last 6 months, even though some people were saying numbers were down. Either way, they're building a huge brand which Google+ is going to find hard to knock off! We've begun our facebook page for http://www.yourbuildingbroker.com.au and have found our clients starting to post their home building journeys there – it's a great sharing platform that's for sure!

Comment by Building Brokers — September 9, 2011 @ 11:09 pm