30% of Facebook’s 500m users access via mobile

Thirty percent of Facebook users (150 million) are accessing via mobile, a growth of 50% in just three months.

Facebook has hit the 500 million user mark, and it’s done it on the back of mobile. Figures from Facebook show that 150 million of the 500 million subscribers now access Facebook via a mobile, up from 100 million in April 2010

The site started in February 2004 as a closed social network for Harvard University, but it was soon opened up to all universities and schools where it became a viral success. Then in September 2006 the site threw open its doors to everyone worldwide as long as they were over 13.

Last week Facebooks head of mobile products, Eric Tseng said at the MobileBeat 2010 conference in San Francisco “Mobile is fast becoming our growth lever,” and he’s not wrong. Of the 500 million, half use the site every day, and for an average of 34 minutes. 150 million users access the site by mobile. “This is the quiet revolution for Facebook,” says the company’s head of European Policy for Europe, Richard Allan said. “We are well positioned for the world beyond the broadband-connected PC.”

Working with Indian carrier Airtel, Facebook set up a mobile-only user experience in which the carrier’s subscribers can join Facebook on a phone. The company is even experimenting with serving subscribers that don’t have data plans, running a trial in which one carrier is allowing subscribers to browse the stripped-down, text-only 0.facebook.com (see our story here) mobile service free of charge. Despite this initiative Facebook has a very low penetration in India (0.89%) and Southern Africa (see table below)  although in the Middle East it seems to be doing very well.

The 500 million figure may be even higher, Facebook only declares active user figures – members that have used the site within the past month – so anyone who registered any hasn’t accessed the site in the last month won’t be counted. The site has attracted 100 million more users in the last six months, and Facebook are already looking forward to the 750 million figure.

Facebook penetration by country

country	Facebook users (July 2010)	population	Percentage penetration
source: Nick Burcher, Facebook, Wikipedia
Hong Kong	3408240	7026400	48.51
Canada	15497900	34077000	45.48
United Kingdom	26543600	62041708	42.78
United States	125881220	309114000	40.72
Chile	6944540	17063000	40.7
Sweden	3798020	9349059	40.62
Australia	9009660	22234000	40.52
Israel	3006460	7531900	39.92
Ireland	1597000	4459300	35.81
Belgium	3505920	10827519	32.38
Turkey	22552540	72561312	31.08
Taiwan	6745160	23131093	29.16
France	18942220	65447374	28.94
Bahrain	226480	791000	28.63
Slovenia	582000	2056710	28.3
Qatar	396860	1409000	28.17
Italy	16647260	60325805	27.6
Slovakia	1481000	5424925	27.3
Croatia	1192160	4435056	26.88
Argentina	10542040	40134425	26.27
Malaysia	7317520	28306700	25.85
Greece	2838700	11306183	25.11
Austria	2084840	8372930	24.9
Venezuela	6686300	28749000	23.26
Spain	10610080	46030109	23.05
Lebanon	962440	4224000	22.78
Colombia	10226820	45407000	22.52
Serbia	2064220	9850000	20.96
Kuwait	518540	2985000	17.37
Estonia	227420	1340021	16.97
Philippines	14600300	92226600	15.83
Tunisia	1594700	10432500	15.29
Jordan	923400	6316000	14.62
Hungary	1455840	10013628	14.54
Germany	9949760	81757600	12.17
Mexico	12978440	107550697	12.07
Indonesia	25912960	231369500	11.2
Poland	2772540	38163895	7.26
Romania	1555360	21466174	7.25
Thailand	4216760	63525062	6.64
South Africa	2884080	49320500	5.85
Morocco	1849740	31787000	5.82
Oman	157440	2845000	5.53
Egypt	3581460	78158000	4.58
Algeria	928100	34895000	2.66
Brazil	4757200	192816000	2.47
Libya	156240	6420000	2.43
Palestine	84240	3761646	2.24
Vietnam	1019120	85789573	1.19
Nigeria	1616120	154729000	1.04
Japan	1192220	127380000	0.94
Ukraine	425680	45962900	0.93
Mauritania	29600	3291000	0.9
India	10547240	1179871000	0.89
Iraq	225600	30747000	0.73
Bangladesh	854520	162221000	0.53
Uganda	168720	32710000	0.52
Rwanda	44340	9998000	0.44
Somalia	0	9133000	0
Sudan	0	39154490	0
Syria	0	21906000	0

[ad name=”Google Text half banner advert “]