Facebook community reaches half-billion

Facebook yesterday said it now counts a half a billion members in its community worldwide. In other words a Facebook country comprising of the networks members would be the third most populous nation on the planet.

One in 14 people around the world is now on the site, which is about the combined population of the US and Brazil.

The site however has yet to attain a mass web penetration India and China.

All of this is something which would have been farthest from the mind of Mark Zuckerberg co-founder of the site when he started out from his Harvard dorm room.

But the strapline for the forthcoming movie about Facebook, called The Social Network reveals a side of the network that may not be know to all- ''You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.''

Right, Facebook has earned the ire of not a few people and since it started out six years ago it has been slapped with numerous lawsuits, concerns about it being used by paedophiles have been aired and arguments about its potential to compromise its users' privacy have been advanced. And last but not the least doubts about its value, financial and practical have been posed.