Recently, Facebook crossed the two billion mark for its monthly active users (MAUs) which is more than the number of people that follow Islam, and the users’ count is closing in on Christians across the globe. According to the American think tank Pew Research Centre, Christianity accounts to 2.3 billion people among its adherents, followed by Islam with about 1.8 billion. “By comparison, Facebook reports it now has 1.32 billion daily active users and 2.01 billion monthly active users as of June 2017 — all supported by a staff of just 20,658 people,” Quartz reported on Sunday.
The report said that Americans now are becoming less religious, join fewer community groups and report record low levels of trust in their fellow citizens. “That’s a lot of people who now need to find a sense of purpose and support somewhere else,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at a Chicago rally for creators of Facebook groups in June. Not only this, Facebook is now growing at an order of magnitude faster than any established denomination.
No major religion is expected to grow faster than 1.4 per cent per year (Islam) over the next two decades, Pew predicted. Facebook, on the other hand, has steadily grown its global user base by about 22 per cent each year — and users of the social media giant will exceed the number of Christians before 2020. Facebook already owns three of the five largest online communities in the world: its own platform, WhatsApp and Instagram. The other two, Chinese services WeChat and TenCent, have nearly two billion users between them.
