Ding! Facebook Toronto Hits 1,000,000

On December 15th, Toronto officially landed it's One Millionth Facebooker...yeh! (can't you hear Kool and the Gang "Celebration" in the background and a big super group poke in your Facebook inbox)

We're so proud. Our little social network is growing up into adolescence...even though they sometimes pull off misguided teenage hijinx like Beacon, they always learn from their mistakes.  It seems like just yesterday, they were a fresh faced kid (wait a minute, it was almost yesterday). My how time flies.

It took only 8 months for them to double their Toronto cell. Perhaps we'll be sitting on two million Toronto Facebookers by next August!?

As the first North American City to hit the mark (unfortunately for us, London has the biggest title with 1.9 million Londoners already Facebooking) - let's look at our cousin North American cells over 300,000 people:

New York City - 607,000
Vancouver - 593,000
Chicago  - 463,000
Montreal - 425,000
L.A. - 385,000
Washington - 382,000
Calgary - 323,000    
Boston - 310,000

You can already hear the earliest of adopters thinking about jumping overboard...the interesting thing is that  they haven't left yet...why?  No suitable alternative. Twitter - fringe and a bit intense. My Space - low rent. Bebo/Cyworld - somewhere else. Second Life - technical issues. Plus, when a full 20% of the world around you is on the platform, it's tough to leave. Maybe Google OpenSocial will produce the next  evolution, but for the next year - expect growth and intrigue everywhere for Facebook.

In the meantime, everybody Facebooker sing:
"Let old acquaintances be sought,
and never brought to mind?
These new acquiantances,
drain on productivity and time.

CHORUS:

For social grapevine, my dear,

for social grapevine,

we’ll take an invite and vampire bite yet,

by our social grapevine.

And surely ye’ll be your Scrabbulous-stoup !
And surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll take a cup o’ new friends yet,
via our social grapevine.

We wonder Microsoft investment mind,
as they paid a chunk in kind ;
But we’ll Facebook happily fit,
and worry later about Facebook's valuation line.

And there’s a super poke,  my trusty fiere !
And gies a Hot or Not o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a request for Are You Interested,
from our beloved social grapevine."

Happy 2008 Facebook!