Facebook Could Hit 700 Million Users, Thanks to Brazil

Facebook users could climb to 700 million worldwide as the social network continues to gain on Google's Orkut in Brazil, a blog that tracks statistics about Facebook reported.

Socialbakers announced that Facebook users in Brazil jumped 11.4 percent or 1.95 million users. The news is interesting because previously Facebook had been working hard to create inroads in the country dominated by Google's social network, Orkut. Although largely unknown by Americans (only 2 percent use it) Orkut has 100 million users globally, most in Brazil and India, according to the Atlantic.

While readers can take this at face value, we took a little time to look into Socialbakers, which is a blog maintained by Candytech -- a Czech marketing company that creates Facebook campaigns. In fact, it markets itself as one of "Facebook's preferred developer consultants," and that its top client is . . . Facebook.

Part of journalism is trying to figure out if people who produce news reports are objective or have an agenda. This report reeks too much of self-interest to be taken at face value.

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