Facebook targets one billionth user

Most publishers are still pondering exactly how they intend to tap into the Facebook market – well they had better get a move on, because if founder Mark Zuckerberg is to believed the market reach of the social network is on track to achieve some startling results.

The Guardian reports that the internet entrepreneur told an audience at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival that the site will reach the 1bn user milestone at some point next year.

It is almost a guarantee that it will happen,” he claimed.

We are down to just four countries where we aren’t the leading social network. If we succeed there is a good chance of bringing this to a billion people. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.”

In an interesting aside it was also explained that the company is able to tell when a new territory is on the verge of explosive growth: We know that a country has tipped when local-to-local connections outnumber local to foreign.” When the site first arrives in anew country nearly all connections are made to friends based abroad.

Zuckerberg added that taking the company public remains an option at some point”. User number growth continues to double every six months.