• The Next Web, Thursday, January 12, 2012 12 PM

Worldwide, Facebook is on pace to surpass 1 billion users by August, according to new calculations from digital marketing firm iCrossing, And no thanks to Western markets, notes The Next Web. “It’s been well documented that Facebook has seen a slow down in new sign-ups in Western markets, like the US, where it is coming close to saturation point amongst Internet users, but developing markets are picking up the slack and pushing it towards its the landmark,” it writes.

According to iCrossing: “Developing countries such as India and Brazil have shown strong growth with India growing from 22 million users to 36 million and Brazil going from 13 million to 30 million in the last 9 months.” Both are large countries with millions of potential users who have yet to sign up to Facebook, with only 3% of India’s population on Facebook, and 16% of Brazil’s.

By contrast, 49% of America’s population -- and 47% of the UK’s -- are already Facebook members. At last count, Facebook is now made up of some 800 million users -- more than half of whom log-in each day, TNW points out.

Read the whole story at The Next Web »