Zuckerberg On 1 Billion Users: “Almost A Guarantee”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg does not think small.  "Big" doesn’t do his objectives justice, either.  At the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival today, Zuckerberg talked about getting 1 billion users and making his site the top social network in every country in the world.

Facebook isn’t as far away from achieving that second goal as some people might imagine.  According to Mark Sweney, Zuckerberg shared an interesting piece of information by stating, "We are down to just four countries where we aren’t the leading social network."

Those countries are China, Japan, Korea, and Russia, if you’re curious, and Qzone, Mixi, Cyworld, and Vkontakte appear to be the local leaders.

As for when Facebook’s CEO thinks Facebook will achieve global dominance, he indicated, "[T]hings look promising in three to five years out."  Then, seemingly in reference to the less distant future, Zuckerberg said at another point, "If we succeed . . . there is a good chance of bringing this to a billion people."

All of which must be music to advertisers’ (and potential investors’) ears.  While making lots of other companies, including Google, nervous, perhaps.  Not many organizations are able to offer advertisers the chance to reach ordinary people all over the world on a regular basis, after all.

Still, with regards to the "potential investors" comment, we should note that Zuckerberg didn’t hint at when Facebook might go public.