With 1.86 Billion monthly active users Facebook boasts success

It may be a new year after all, but the script is not so different as the one we have grown accustomed to with regards to social media, of course. Facebook has just breached another milestone, now acknowledging their status not as a social media platform, but as an ecosystem.

Facebook’s Monthly Active Users now stand at 1.86 billion, which is by far the most among any other social media platforms, and constitutes a combined number of Web and Mobile users.

The social networking ‘ecosystem’ has reported revenues of $8.81 billion, doing better than expected by Reuters, which is a testament to Facebook’s rise in the digital advertising arena, now only second to Google.

Mark Zuckerberg reveled in the success of his multi billion dollar machine that has established itself, obliterated rivals and made him the fifth richest person in the entire world.

But the good news was turned slightly melancholy when Facebook was ordered to pay $500 million to ZeniMax, as part of their legal tussle over breach of non-disclosure agreement by Oculus executives.

$500 million may not be too big a hit, given that good times have been rolling for Facebook in an otherwise well spread purple patch, and this may just be the occasional stuttering that we all know Facebook commits.

Mark Zuckerberg appeared ecstatic on his Facebook account where he broke the news to his millions of followers that Facebook's monthly active users were now nearing 1.9 billion, with 1.2 billion Daily Active Users, and that more than 65 million small businesses use Facebook for their advertising duties.

He went further to reveal Facebook’s future course of action and the success of Facebook’s platform family, “Our biggest focus continues to be putting video first across our family of apps. More than 150 million people now use Instagram Stories every day. We've launched our new camera in Messenger and have started rolling it out in Facebook as well.”

Zuckerberg concluded by thanking Facebook users for being a part of the journey.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told Forbes, “We had a very strong quarter topping off a strong year.” She further added, “Businesses are making shifts to mobile, and they're doing it on Facebook and Instagram. It explains a lot of our current growth and future opportunity.”

Strong would be putting Facebook’s dominance mildly, as not only Facebook, but Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp taking significant leaps towards utter and total dominance, through sheer innovation and some questionable maneuvers, but hey it worked.

Instagram recently crossed 600 million users, together with Instagram Stories that registered 150 million users, matching rivals Snapchat’s numbers.

WhatsApp too has 1.2 billion users, and Messenger close second with a billion users, meaning Facebook has not one, not two, but three platforms that have more than a billion users, and one of those looks poised to go past 2 billion sometime around this year.

If you are one to strictly consider facts and past performances, a much greater year lays ahead for Facebook.