How Many Users Does Facebook Have?

Image source: Facebook.

It's not an exaggeration to say that Facebook (FB 0.55%) has accomplished what no other social network before it ever has. The company has reached such a critical mass of users that it has firmly established itself as the dominant social network on the planet, and by a large margin. It goes without saying that any social network relies heavily on network effects, and in this respect Facebook is unrivaled. No other social network has even gotten close to approaching Facebook's sheer size.

The Internet continues to evolve and include new phases. First, there was display, then there was search, and now there is social. Different companies embody each of these phases, and Facebook easily represents the current phase of how people interact on the Web. One of the most relevant user metrics for Facebook is how many people access the service in a given month. These users are considered monthly active users, or MAUs.

As of the most recent quarter, Facebook had a total of 1.55 billion MAUs worldwide.

Facebook users
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Considering the ongoing secular shift to mobile platforms, mobile MAUs are also an extremely pertinent metric for investors to watch. Here is a comparison Facebook's monthly active and mobile monthly active users since 2012.

Source: SEC filings. User figures in millions.

Going forward, Facebook's user growth may slow, but what matters now is that the company continues to increase monetization of existing users.