.5 bil users on Facebook real or inflated?
filed in Expanding Other Blogs, Hot Debates, Product Reviews, Relationship Management, Small Business, Social Media, Web Media Reviews on Aug.04, 2010
NPR today on the radio show Here and Now featured a security watchdog company’s executive discussing the security risks of Facebook and considering the state of Facebook after news that Zuckerberg’s baby hit 500 million users, a milestone that surely heightened the joys of advertisers.
However, there should be some concern for this number. Unlike a door counter at a public event location, Facebook has an “account” counter, and may not consider the recent influx of fake profiles, duplicate profiles and old profiles that were not used for the last year or more (a more controversial status that tends to imply that the person is not technically a current user). To sat that you have 500 million accounts is different than saying you have 500 million active accounts.
MySpace is no different, though their security fiascos in recent years make them more likely to claim many more active users that turn out to be bot scripts rather than real people. How many hot and horny women have web cams to see in my local area? The MySpace populous claims to have thousands, though I have never seen them pass by in the local Safeway looking for lube and toothpaste.
This possible fallacy in the milestone claim may not be enough to deter advertisers or the population general. Even if a whopping 25% of that figure is false user counts, that leaves a 375 million user market for goods and services to target. That is 68 million more people on Fb than the entire population from infant to 100+ survivalist in the United States (source: 2009, US Census, Population Division). Making a complaint about false numbers is like throwing a really heavy rock in the center of a lake hoping it will drain into the earth’s crust.
