As social media grows, need for better laws gets stronger

Despite the data breach allegations which prompted a US Senate hearing plus the #DeleteFacebook movement, US social media giant Facebook delivered a bumper earnings result for the quarter ending March 31. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at US$1.65 against analysts' predicted US$1.35.

Expectedly, the results soothed frayed nerves of spooked investors. But beyond the financial numbers, Facebook shared some statistics that show just how much of an unstoppable force the social media site has become. Facebook now has 1.45 billion daily active users and 2.2 billion monthly active users, reinforcing the adage that if the social network were a country, it would be the world's biggest by a stretch.

That's not all. The company's two messaging platforms - WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger - saw around 100 billion messages, combined, being sent a day globally during the quarter. To put things in perspective, at the peak of the SMS (short messaging service) era, the highest number of messages recorded per day was around 20 billion. It is natural that Facebook is doing what it can to monetise this massive reach. There is talk about the company "being more open to" advertising on WhatsApp, especially with the company's original founder, Jan Koum, leaving Facebook.