Facebook is set to hit 500 million users worldwide

Facebook is set to hit 500 million users worldwide, the news comes only six years after it was first conceived  in a Harvard dorm room.

The milestone figure would mean the social networking site has reached about 8% of the world’s population.

It is a huge increase for a company with such humble beginnings and which still only had 150 million users in January last year.

The landmark figure comes a month after group chief executive, 26-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, said there is a “good chance” Facebook could have one billion users in the next three to five years.

In the UK, the network already has around 26 million users – more than a third of the population – however, in Japan, South Korea, China and Russia, it is still a secondary provider.