• December 31, 2008

Highlighting Facebook's rapid international growth, use of the social network in Turkey jumped from 4.5% to about 10% of the population--or 7.5 million people--in just the last half of 2008, according the blog Inside Facebook.

That means that Turkey is surpassed in Facebook users only by the U.S. (41 million), the U.K. (14.8 million) and Canada (10.7 million). France trails Turkey with 6.3 million users. The growth of Facebook's audience in Turkey has also given rise to 760 applications there, including a video-sharing app and a Sim City-like program.

Facebook last week said active users on the site had hit 140 million worldwide, up 10 million since just the beginning of December. Most of that growth--about 70%--continues to be outside the U.S.--Mark Walsh