Facebook To Reach One Billion Mobile Users In Near Future

It was recently reported by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) UK that the social networking site Facebook will reach one billion mobile users at some point in the coming 12 months, as more than 70% of the site’s worldwide users have access to mobile technology.

The statistics come from a new report released by marketing research firm eMarketer, which found that around 0.99 billion people will use a mobile or tablet device to log into the social networking site at least once this month – an increase of 15.2% when compared to the same period in 2014. The report continued to note that this trend will continue in the coming few years, as Facebook’s user base continue to expand (it is expected to reach 1.34 billion mobile users by 2017).

Facebook’s largest mobile user base lies in the US where 123.1 million people are predicted to engage with the site via a mobile device in 2015. In terms of the proportion of total mobile users, however, the UK ranked highly, with 84% connecting with a smartphone or tablet. By the year 2018, it is predicted that 94% of the 31 million Facebook users in the UK will use a mobile devices to log into the site.

Mobile has been a particularly important factor for Facebook in terms of driving advertising revenue, with 45% of Facebook’s global advertising revenue being produced via mobile ads in 2013. This year this percentage is expected to rise to 73% – the equivalent of $10.9 billion.

Principal analyst at eMarketer, Debra Aho Williamson, concluded that “as Facebook’s user base shifts even more heavily toward mobile, it is well positioned to see increasing ad revenues from this channel.”