Facebook became the first social network to reach 3 billion monthly active users.
Meta reported in July 2023 that Facebook had surpassed 3 billion monthly active people. The milestone referred to accounts active during a 30-day period, not to three billion simultaneous users or necessarily three billion unique human beings without duplicate or other account complications.
Facebook’s growth began with a college-focused launch in 2004 and expanded internationally after access opened beyond universities. The service added features such as News Feed, Pages, Groups, video, Marketplace, and messaging, helping it serve different kinds of communities and activity.
The milestone is sometimes confused with daily active users. Monthly active users count people who use the service at least once in a month, while daily active users count activity on an average day. Instagram and WhatsApp are also owned by Meta, but the reported three-billion milestone specifically concerned Facebook’s own platform.