As founder Mark Zuckerberg discussed the democratization of his brainchild, Facebook, on Thursday, he casually dropped a company goal for 2009 – 200 million members.
Facebook grew by 5 million users a week in January, so 200 million could be just around the corner
Hopefully the social-networking site will pass the mark this year, he said, as he announced that current members will be able to comment and vote on privacy and other “terms of service” guidelines.
But this is hardly a leap of faith – or much of a leap of any sort.
As of Feb. 17, Facebook had more than 175 million members, with growth of 5 million members a week in January. If that growth pace continues, Facebook will reach the 200 million mark by the end of March.
If growth falls to half that pace, 200 million members will have signed up by early May.
So what will Mark and company do for the rest of the year?
A December goal of 400 million members would be much more impressive. Or should we expect Facebook’s blistering growth to slow considerably as the year wears on?
Posted by Mark Boslet 
