The total number of monthly active Facebook users is 1,310,000,000. Of these 1,310,000,000 active users, 680 million are mobile users. This staggering number puts Facebook at the very top, making it the largest online social network. In a world in which our population is rapidly growing day by day and seemingly getting larger and larger, Facebook is in fact making it smaller. With over seventy different languages available, Facebook is the leading social network in 111 out of 131 countries as recently analyzed by Vincenzo Cosenza. Many will argue that Facebook violates the online privacy of its users, however above all, Facebook is a beneficial tool that enables people from over 111 countries, who are geographically disconnected, to connect with others and share their views from almost anywhere in the world.

Facebook has changed the way businesses interact with their customers. Facebook provides a platform where customers can share their opinions and stories, giving positive and negative feedback about different corporations and businesses, allowing those companies to respond and react. Almost all of the businesses or companies that have a Facebook page have a team of representatives online at all times to be able to respond to customers and post events, ads, deals, etc. A real time connection between the customer and business has enhanced the marketing and buyer experience exponentially.

According to the State of Inbound Marketing, 42% of marketers report that Facebook is critical or important to their business. Many people believe that ad’s and businesses add clutter to ones news feed, however businesses have incorporated new strategies that attract Facebook users. Personally, I’ve visited multiple businesses Facebook pages because they provide deals and event updates which are quite useful. One of the most popular ways businesses connect with their customers is asking users to “like” their page and in return they will give them some sort of discount or a chance to win a prize. My friends dad, Ed Martin, who owns an apartment business in Atlanta called MLC Properties, has created a business page on Facebook. In an video call interview, via Facebook, Ed stated, “Facebook has allowed our business to stay connected with our customers. We are able to advertise different events and attractions close to our properties through our Facebook page.” Not only are Facebook pages beneficial to the businesses themselves but they are helpful for the customers as well.

One of the largest American multinational food and beverage corporations, Pepsi, decided to skip out on the Super Bowl advertising and instead take their market to Facebook. Twenty years ago this move would have seemed insane; however Pepsi was looking for a more two-way dialogue between its corporation and their customers, rather than relying on good Super Bowl commercial reviews. By using Facebook, Pepsi shifts from trying to sell their brand to trying to connect with their customers. Therefore in the process of Pepsi engaging with their customers on Facebook and developing a relationship with them, the customers in turn feel more comfortable with doing business with the company. Facebook has developed a unique platform for businesses that have completely changed the way people think about marketing.

Over 75% of Facebook users are outside of the United States and over 300,000 of these users have helped translate Facebook into different languages. Facebook has released a new application that allows users to do a lot more than just click a translation button. This new tool allows users to modify translations so that anyone can translate Facebook into their own language from anywhere in the world. Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, tells the story about many young religious militants from Lebanon who changed their view of Western culture through Facebook friendships when Zuckerberg demonstrates the impact that Facebook has had on the world. With over seventy different languages available on Facebook, humans are able to freely express their ideas and views instantaneously. “Now through translations, we are seeing a lot of growth in international countries,” says Javier Olivian, the International Manager at Facebook.

Not only are corporations taking advantage of this international platform, but politicians are using Facebook to advertise their views, finding new staff, and giving their voters a look into their own personal life. Internationally, Facebook has given political activists a way to organize protests. For instance in 2008, a Facebook group called “One Million Voices Against FARC” organized a protest against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia. They were able to generate over hundreds of thousands of citizens to participate in the march. Facebook has become a very powerful tool to both promote and resist politics, and users from different countries are able to connect and share their views in only one click.

Recently, Facebook has merged with WhatsApp, the leading mobile messaging company, in order to increase Facebook’s ability to bring mobility and connectivity to the world. In a recent Facebook post by Mark Zuckerberg, describes WhatsApp as, “a simple, fast and reliable mobile messaging service that is used by over 450 million people on every major mobile platform. More than 1 million people sign up every day and it is on its way to connecting one billion people.” By acquiring WhatsApp, Facebook has made the world more open and connected than ever before. WhatsApp is efficient and affordable, which will accelerate growth and interest for both Facebook and WhatsApp. WhatsApp provides the rest of the world free messaging, which removes international calling and texting expenses. Facebook is always keeping an eye out for companies that share their common goal of connecting people all over the world and as new technologies such as WhatsApp emerge, the social networking kings look to increase their users.

Facebook has been knocking down borders around the world through connecting people and giving them the opportunity to present themselves in a single profile on an international scale. Currently, Facebook has been working on a foundation called Internet.org that develops technologies in order to speed up the process of Internet access to two-thirds of the world that has yet been connected. Facebook will continue to be the leading force in international connectivity as long as they persist in testing the constantly changing boundaries of social media.