Facebook Reaches 2 Billion Users, Now Wants to Build Friendships

(Bloomberg) -- Facebook’s social network now has 2 billion monthly active users -- about a quarter of the world’s population and more than half of the people on the internet.

It’s the first social network to connect that many people. Google’s YouTube recently announced it has 1.5 billion logged-in users a month, while Facebook Inc.’s Instagram has 700 million and Twitter has 328 million.

Facebook is reaching the milestone just a few days after co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg declared that simply adding more people to the social network isn’t enough. He outlined a new mission for the Menlo Park, California-based company, centered on helping people build strong bonds, in response to isolationist and nationalist movements around the world.

“We’re making progress connecting the world, and now let’s bring the world closer together,” Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook page Tuesday.