Facebook reported 845 million monthly active users when it filed for its IPO in 2012.
The figure appeared in Facebook’s preliminary prospectus, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on February 1, 2012. It showed how quickly the social network had expanded from a college-focused website into a global communications platform. The filing also said Facebook generated about 2.7 billion likes and comments each day.
The IPO filing sought to raise approximately $5 billion and described a business whose user growth and revenue growth were beginning to slow. Facebook ultimately priced its shares at $38 and went public on May 18, 2012, giving the company a valuation of roughly $104 billion at the offering price.
The number is sometimes confused with later milestones, especially the one-billion-user mark Facebook reached in 2012. That milestone came after the filing, while 845 million is the specific monthly active-user count disclosed in the IPO paperwork. “Monthly active users” also means users active within a 30-day period, not necessarily people online every day.