Social networking Web site Facebook is celebrating its fifth birthday today.

The company used the oportunity to release some statistics about its improvements over time: according to the reports, an average Facebook user has 120 friends and the network’s 15 million registered users spend a combined three billion minutes every day to update their status messages. The page managed to register huge popularity outside of the United States, and at this point, more than 70 percent of its users are based outside the US. Also, more than 850 million photos are added every month.

"The culture of the Internet has also changed pretty dramatically over the past five years. Before, most people wouldn't consider sharing their real identities online," said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder. "But Facebook has offered a safe and trusted environment for people to interact online, which has made millions of people comfortable expressing more about themselves," he added.

Even though at first it was opened only for Harvard students, it soon started allowing the access to everyone interested in joining the community and managed to introduce some features never before used by social networks, increasing its popularity. Mr. Zuckerberg stated that its focus is set on continuing the hard work just as before, in order to make sure that Facebook’s users remain satisfied with the service.

In 2006, Yahoo’s $1 billion bid was rejected and in 2007 a deal was reached with Microsoft, which paid $250 million for a 1.6 percent share. The acquisition gave Facebook a total estimated value of over $15 billion.