More than 500 million people have joined the social networking site Facebook, the company's founder said.
It means almost 8% of the world's population use the tool to connect with friends, family and colleagues.
The "important milestone" comes only months after Facebook announced that 400 million users were active on the site.
The company's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said: "As of this morning, 500 million people all around the world are actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the people around them.
"This is an important milestone for all of you who have helped spread Facebook around the world. Now a lot more people have the opportunity to stay connected with the people they care about."
Recently Mr Zuckerberg said the company is likely to reach the billion-user mark but technology bloggers are sceptical and have suggested the current figure may be a peak.
The company - which is based in Palo Alto, California - now employs more than 1,400 people around the world.
The website, which was originally created for college students to keep in contact with one another, was launched in 2004 by Mr Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin in their dorm room at Harvard University.
Now it is one of the busiest websites in the world - people spend 500 billion minutes a month trawling through the site. The average member has more than 130 friends and creates 70 pieces of content each month.
In the last five months it has gained more than 100 million unique users - a member who returns to the site more than once in a month.
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