Facebook is the current king of social media. If someone has only one social media account, it usually is a Facebook account. However, Facebook is more than just a location for people to share thoughts, images and other material with one another. With so many people using Facebook, there truly are a large amount of rather interesting Facebook facts. These facts might not change the way you use the social media network or how you interact with people on it, but knowing these interesting facts about Facebook might open your mind to a larger understanding not only of what the social media giant does but how it works as well.

The Logo

When Facebook first started out, it featured an icon of a man, often known as the Facebook Guy. This individual represented the website for a long time, yet nobody could tell who it was. Obviously, only a rendering, but even renderings are based on someone. It eventually came to light that the Facebook Guy is actually a manipulated image of Al Pacino, the actor known for his roles in Scarface and The Godfather.

The Zuckerbergs

Seeing how successful Facebook is today, it may come to you as a surprise that, during the first Facebook summer, Mark Zuckerberg hit his family up for over $85,000 to help keep it afloat. Of course, most businesses are not going to be at the disposal of extremely wealthy family members, but it shows that without some persistence and a dream, Facebook would have never materialized. Now, at least as of September of 2013, Mark Zuckerberg is worth around $19 billion. So, needless to say, the $85,000 investment his family pumped into the company is paying off, and more likely than not, Mark has paid them back many times over (at least let’s hope he has). If you want to know more about the Zuckerberg family, check this article on NYMag.com.

Numbers and Figures

There are all sorts of fun Facebook facts and statistics out there. For one, Facebook went public on NASDAQ back in May of 2012. At the time, shares of the stock were priced at $38, which is rather high for an entry-level stock on the stock exchange. This ultimately pegged the value of the company at over $100 billion. With this kind of value, Facebook is actually worth more than eBay, Groupon, Netflix, Yahoo, Pandora and AOL combined. Of course, the stock has since shifted in price, although this is common for most stocks after the initial pricing. However, it really is rather impressive that a social media website has such a total value. It also shows how it is possible for a company such as Facebook to go out and spend billions of dollars purchasing other companies, services, business ideas and startups from around the globe. Once a company makes it big, it is necessary to stay on top, and the best way to do that is to purchase the competition that might have a feature or idea that is not currently offered by the larger company. Facebook has done this many times, including mobile applications such as Instagram and WhatsApp. To see a full list of Facebook-owned companies, see this list on the website.

For anyone who was in school during the mid-1990s or older, the word Napster probably rings a bell. Napster essentially ushered in the era of online music. While the company eventually fell by the wayside due to all sorts of copyright infringements, Napster essentially changed the world of music, and now, just about all music is obtained through the internet. Sean Parker co-founded Napster, so he has a considerable amount of knowledge surrounding internet startups and adding features to make a website much more user-friendly and popular. He essentially helped make Facebook what it is today.

He changed the website name from Thefacebook.com to what it is now, Facebook.com, even though it cost a total of $200,000 to do so. He understood that branding is extremely important and that the simple name, even though it only meant removing the ‘The’, would prove extremely beneficiary. He also pointed out the very important feature of photo sharing on the site. This cost the company much more in terms of data storage space required to run the website, but now it is perhaps the most popular feature on Facebook, making it what it is today.

More Facts and Figures

In terms of Facebook facts and figures, 42 percent of users on Facebook are male, making the other 58 percent female. Although there is a full 16 percent gap between male and female users on Facebook, it is actually the most gender neutral social media website out there. Pinterest has an overwhelming number of women users over men, while far more men use Google+. Other facts on Facebook include around 75 percent of all U.S. users of the account have at last some sort of college education and 73 percent of these individuals have an annual income above $75,000. This is a far greater percentage than other social media websites. Only 17 percent of users on Twitter have the same income, compared to only 13 percent on Pinterest. If you want to know more about Facebook security, read our What Everyone Should Know About Facebook Privacy Settings article on the topic here.

A popular feature on Facebook is the ability to check in to different locations. During 2013, outside of transportation hubs, the top check in locations inside the United States included Disneyland, Times Square in New York, Walt Disney World, Dodger Stadium and Los Angeles stadium, AT&T Park in San Francisco, Rangers Ballpark in Texas, Fenway Park in Boston, the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Houston.

Facebook Then and Now

Another interesting Facebook fact is that it originally started off as a website only for college students, as you needed to have a college based email account in order to register. Now, however, literally, anyone with an email address is able to use it. In 2014, 66 percent of all individuals between the ages of 15 and 34 had a Facebook account. 45 percent of 65-year-olds (and older) who use the internet also have a Facebook account. With a larger number of older individuals signing up for Facebook now, a total of 70 percent of all people are now friends with their parents on Facebook.

For the average user of Facebook, an individual is exposed to 1,500 pieces of content every single day, plus around 7.5 million websites now have the Facebook Like or Facebook Share button embedded on their pages. Facebook has become so popular that 48 percent of all 18 to 34-year-olds check their Facebook account after waking up, while another 28 percent check Facebook before even getting out of bed.

Some other Facebook fun facts point toward California as the state with the most users. Naturally, this makes sense as it is the most populated state in the country. A total of over 15 million users are from the state alone. Next, Texas has nine million users on the social medial website, while New York has eight million.

Companies are able to receive likes on Facebook, and inside the United States, the companies with the most likes on Facebook are, in order: Walmart, Target, Amazon, Samsung and Subway.

Facebook Around the World

China has blocked the social media service inside the country, but this has not stopped 95 million people from creating an account. This means roughly that 6-7 percent of the Chinese population has a Facebook account, even though the website is blocked in the country. In fact, the total number of Facebook users has shifted greatly in recent years. 86 percent of daily users of the website are now located outside of the United States and Canada. A total of 29 percent of this traffic comes from Asia. Another interesting Facebook fact points out that it supports 70 different languages!

The ‘Awesome’ Button

When creating Facebook, engineers had the idea to create an “Awesome” button, in order to show just how much someone enjoys and supports an idea or topic. However, they eventually changed this to the “Like” button. Facebook continues to grow through. Just between the years 2012 and 2013, the total number of Facebook users jumped by 22 percent. Since the creation of the website, there have been a total of 150 billion friend connections, 1.13 trillion likes and 250 billion photos uploaded. On a single day alone, there are around 350 million photos uploaded and 4.5 billion likes. Plus, 10 billion messages are sent and the like or share button is used 22 billion times, all of this is in a single day. It simply points to just how popular Facebook has become in the last few years, and why it is not going anywhere, at least in the foreseeable future.

For some more fun facts about Facebook, read this 12 Fun Facts About Facebook on its 12th Birthday article on CBSnews.com.