The Daily Viz » Facebook

Facebook By The Numbers

Matt Stiles — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:50:28 +0000

AFTER eight years, scores of lawsuits and a blockbuster movie, Facebook is going public. It is seeking to raise $5 billion from its initial public offering, which would give it an estimated market capitalisation of $80-100 billion—similar to that of fast-food chain McDonald’s. The social network employs only around 3,000 staff, giving it an average revenue of $1.2m per person in 2011. Analysts are quick to point out that the site’s users effectively act as employees, adding content and value for others.

Five Years of Facebook Posts

Matt Stiles — Tue, 17 May 2011 15:28:00 +0000

I joined Facebook nearly five years ago, and I’ve since posted more than 1,700 items to my wall, a figure I obtained by downloading my profile history. I wondered what all these status messages, news stories, cat pictures, videos and other musings would look like in a word cloud (excluding common Facebook phrases, dates, my name and the text string “happy birthday”).

Here’s the final result, with larger words representing more use:

Image: wordle.net

The State of Facebook

Matt Stiles — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 19:38:00 +0000

The percentage of Facebook users by state as of Dec. 2009 (darker shades represent higher rates of usage):

Sources: Google Fusion Tables, U.S. Census Bureau | Data

Visualizing Facebook Friends

Matt Stiles — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 21:19:00 +0000

Every wonder how your friends on Facebook are connected? Now you can see using Friend Wheel, a free Flash app that creates an interactive radial convergence graphic with your data.

Here’s mine:

See large version