SFN report: Facebook fastest grower to hit mass market

Posted by Erina Lin on January 5, 2010 at 4:46 PM

Facebook, the most popular and fastest growing social networking site in recent years, has beat the iPod, cell phones and many traditional media as the fastest item or service to penetrate the mass market, SFN's World Digital Media Trends 2009 reported.

First introduced in 2004, Facebook has taken five years to reach 150 million users in 2009. However, compared to some other top technologies, the social networking site has taken a much shorter time to hit the mass market, which is only 5 years.

The iPod, introduced in 2001, took seven years to reach 150 million users, while mobile phones, which first entered the market in 1983, took 14 years to get there.

Television was introduced in 1928, and it was not until 1966, 38 years later, that it reached 150 million users. The telephone, introduced in 1876, took 89 years to hit the mass market, according to the report, World Digital Media Trends 2009, released by SFN and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.