Based on the social network’s recent growth, UK digital marketing firm iCrossing is projecting that Facebook will pass the significant milestone of one billion users this August.
It’s been known that Facebook has seen a slow down in new user registrations in Western markets, like the United States, where it’s coming close to saturation point amongst Internet users, but developing markets are picking up the slack and pushing it towards the landmark.
iCrossing’s projections are based on a process of linear regression on Facebook user numbers from the end of 2008 onwards. Their estimates predict that Facebook currently has around 850 million active users, will reach 900 million by the end of March and eventually the one billion milestone by the end of August.
There are a couple of big moments coming up for Facebook in 2012, and while details of its IPO are still unknown, we can set our clocks for August. Facebook has pioneered a change in online communication and who is to say where it will go in the next five years, let alone the preceding twelve months.