Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced last week that the social networking site had reached a staggering one billion users – nearly one seventh of the world’s population.
With 38.8 million people signed up, Mexico is currently the country with the fifth most Facebook users on earth. This represents 34.5 percent of the population of Mexico.
Facebook said it reached the one-billion-user milestone on September 14. The latest statistics from Social Bakers show the United States has the largest presence on Facebook, with 167.8 million users. Brazil (59.5 million), India (59.2) and Indonesia (49.7) follow, with Mexico coming fifth ahead of the United Kingdom (33.1).
The number of Facebook users in Mexico has shot up by 5.7 million in the last six months alone. The split of male and female users in Mexico is exactly 50/50 and the largest age group is from 18 to 24, comprising 17.5 million users.
With 6.2 million likes from Mexican users, Tapatio rock band Maná is the most popular fan page in the country. Cinepolis is the most popular brand, with 2.4 million likes, followed by Blackberry Mexico with two million and Starbucks Mexico with 1.9 million.Horror sequel Paranormal Activity 2 is the most popular movie listed on users’ profiles in Mexico, with 2.9 million likes. Guadalajara-born soccer star Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez has the most popular sports page with 2.5 million fans.
Facebook is by far the world’s most popular social network, followed by micro-blogging site Twitter. Among the most popular alternatives are Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tagged, Google+, MySpace and Orkut.
A BRIEF GUIDE TO ONLINE JARGON
With its pokes, tweets and tags, the world of social networking can appear intimidating to the uninitiated. Here’s the Reporter’s handy guide to understanding it all:
Wall – The space on a Facebook user’s profile where friends can leave messages. Unlike the inbox for private messages, these posts can be seen by other users or even the public, depending on the individual’s privacy settings.
Newsfeed – The homepage where users will see stories, comments and photographs posted by their friends or the users they follow.
Tag – “Tagging” enables you to link a user’s profile to a photograph or comment in which they appear or are referenced.
Poke – A highly publicized but fairly pointless and rarely used feature in Facebook which enable users to “poke friends.” The recipient will then receive a message saying who has poked them, with the option to “poke back.”
Block – prevent an undesired user from being able to view your profile or send you messages.
Tweet – to post a message on Twitter.
Retweet (RT) – to repeat someone else’s comment to your followers on Twitter.
Trending topic – Twitter lists the most commonly used words, phrases or hashtags (see below) at any given time in different countries, major cities or the entire world. These are known as “trending topics.”
# – Hashtags are used on Twitter when discussing a certain topic. Searching for a specific hashtag enables users to view recent posts by others referring to the same topic.
@ – Followed by a username, the @ symbol is used to address or tag friends in a comment or publication on Twitter or Facebook.
COMMON ABBREVIATIONS
BRB – Be right back
BTW – By the way
LOL – Laughing out loud
OMG – Oh my God
WTF – What the ****?