DHAKA: Half of the world’s estimated online population now check in to the social networking giant Facebook at least once a month.

Facebook said the number of people who use it at least monthly grew 13% to 1.49 billion in the three months to the end of June, reports the BBC.

The number is equal to half of the estimated three billion people who use the internet worldwide.

Of those users, it said well over half, 65%, were now accessing Facebook daily.

The rise in monthly active users helped drive second quarter revenue up 39% year-on-year to $4.04bn.

Mobile advertising revenue was the biggest factor, accounting for more than three quarters of the total.

In the US, the company said people were now spending more than one out of every five minutes on their smartphones on Facebook.

‘But as well as keeping an eye on the short term gains they’re also keeping an eye on the long term so they’re future proofing themselves – it’s clear this is an organizational imperative,’ Forrester analyst Erna Alfred Liousas told the BBC.

Despite what Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg said was a ‘strong quarter’, its shares fell more than 3% in after hours trading.

BDST: 1340 HRS, JULY 30, 2015
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