Facebook has become a public company, after listing its shares on the NASDAQ exchange in New York.
Here are some facts and figures about the company:
Facebook has more than 900 million active users. If the company were a country, it would be the third largest in the world after China (population 1.34bn) and India (1.17bn)
More than half of its members - some 488m people - use Facebook on mobile devices, and the reach is even bigger in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria and Japan, where mobile use is 70-90%*
With 157m members, the United States has the most Facebook users. Brazil recently jumped to second place with 47m, followed by India with 45.8m, Indonesia with 42.2m and Mexico with 33.1m *
Facebook is the most popular social network in every country of the world, with the exceptions of China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam**
In April, Facebook announced a billion-dollar deal to buy the start-up behind wildly popular smartphone photo sharing application Instagram, its biggest acquisition to date. The US Federal Trade Commission is reviewing the deal
Facebook has minted four billionaires: Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Sean Parker
28-year-old Mark Zuckerberg's net worth was estimated at $17.5bn on the 2011 Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans. Dustin Moskovitz had a net worth of $3.5bn but pipped Mr Zuckerberg for the title of world's youngest billionaire, being eight days younger. Brazilian-born Eduardo Saverin, who left Facebook early on after a falling-out with Mark Zuckerberg, had a net worth of $2bn. Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder who briefly served as Facebook's president, had a net worth of $2.1bn.
Chris Hughes, one of Facebook's four co-founders, served as director of online organising for Barack Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign.
Facebook says it had an average of 526m daily active users in March 2012, an increase of 41% from a year ago. It had registered 125bn "friend connections" as of 31 March and 3.2bn "likes" and comments.
More than 300m photos are uploaded to Facebook every day.
Facebook, which currently employs around 3,500 people, has announced plans to hire "thousands" more over the next year. Some studies suggest that Facebook-related firms and apps have created many more jobs and economic value.
With a market value at the IPO of $104bn, Facebook is bigger than Amazon ($98bn) and Cisco ($89bn), and more than twice the value of Ford Motor Co ($38bn). However, it remains behind Google ($203bn) and Apple ($495bn).
* Source: socialbakers.com
** Source: comScore
