Nearly 25 million Facebook accounts made by Filipinos

MANILA, Philippines – Last month ended with the Philippines as the seventh country with the biggest number of user accounts in the social networking service Facebook, based on data gathered by Socialbakers.com, one of the biggest Facebook statistics portals in the world.

A total of 24,500,920 Facebook accounts were created by Filipino users as of May 31, 2011. It’s not clear, however, if the accounts represent only those created by people and entities based in the Philippines or also those made by individuals or group of Filipinos working or living abroad.

The “blanket” number also didn’t say if it represents a 1:1 user-account ratio or there are multiple accounts owned by specific users or groups with Filipino origin.

The Philippines also came third on the list of most new Facebook sign-ups by country last month, with 1.3 million new accounts, according to Socialbakers. Brazil and Indonesia came in at first and second with 1.9 million and 1.5 million new Facebook accounts, respectively.

Overall, the United States still got the most number of Facebook accounts at 149.3 million. The second biggest Facebook user population by country is Indonesia with 37.8 million accounts, followed by the United Kingdom with 29.5 million Facebook users.

Socialbakers noted that the high growth in new membership sign-ups indicates that Facebook will soon hit its 700-millionth sign-up. The number of new accounts from the United States, however, appears to have slackened off last month to make it to the top sign-up list.

The popularity of Facebook in the Philippines has allowed the social networking site to achieve an 82.49 percent penetration of the country’s online population, said Socialbakers.

In terms of advertising, the numbers translate to an average of $0.19 CPC (cost per click) and $0.08 CPM (cost per million). CPC is what advertisers pay when people click on an advertisement, and CPM translates to what they pay for 1,000 impressions on an advert.

The US has a $1.16 CPC and a $0.50 CPM, according to Socialbakers.

FB profile

Of the total Facebook accounts attributed to the Philippines, 52 percent and 48 percent are said to be created by female and male users, respectively. The majority of Filipinos on Facebook said they are between 18 and 24 years old (38 percent), followed by users who claim they belong to the 25- and 34-year-old bracket (24 percent).

A small group (three percent) of Facebook users is composed of local seniors aged 55 to 64. Socialbakers data also showed nine percent of Facebook user accounts from the Philippines are by kids aged 13 to 15.

The truth, however, is there are kids under 13 who are active on Facebook today. Technically, kids under the age of 13 are not allowed to sign on any website that collects information about users, as mandated by the Children’s Online Protection Act in the US.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg publicly stated last month his desire to change this policy and allow kids on social networking sites like Facebook where, he said, they could get some educational benefits.

Clearly, a lot of kids are not waiting for that change to happen and are easily creating their Facebook accounts by faking their age in the online sign-up form.

Meanwhile, the way young and old Filipinos are flocking to Facebook has already resulted in more user accounts to eclipse the total 15 million plus votes garnered by the current president of the republic.

With 24.5 million Facebook accounts to its credit, the Philippines once more displays its brand of “people power” that once fed the success of Friendster.

An early forerunner to Facebook, Friendster ceased its social networking operations and deleted all its user-created data last May 31.

Friendster, which at some point had over 35 million Filipino users, many of whom probably moved to Facebook by now, promised to return as a social gaming and entertainment hub for Asian users.

As of press time, Facebook listed 689.3 million active users. –Alma Buelva (The Philippine Star)