On Friends Day, Facebook highlights the power of connecting

Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg take a group photo with the 18 guests invited to Facebook for the Friends Day event from places like Saudi Arabia, Louisiana, Hungary, Oklahoma and Ireland.

Facebook celebrates its 12th birthday today , February 4. This day is known as Friends Day and we’re planning on sharing some great, new stuff to celebrate friendship. When people connect, powerful things can happen and lives can be changed. We see this every day on Facebook. Whether it’s an exchange with an old friend that brings a smile to your face or a new connection that changes your life path, or even the world. See below for the ways we’re celebrating connecting on this special day.

For Friends Day, we’re releasing data, stories, and products that we’ll release a Newsroom Post that will go live today at 1:00 PM.

Earlier this week, we hosted an intimate Friends Day event at our Menlo Park headquarters where 18 members of the Facebook community with incredible stories were invited to come to campus. They came from Saudi Arabia, Louisiana, Hungary, Oklahoma and elsewhere to share their stories of connecting with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and others. Here are a few quotes from Mark and Sheryl from the event.

- Mark Zuckerberg:
  - “And that’s really what we care about, so we figured that rather than having this birthday that focuses on us, we should make sure that the world focus on what’s important that’s actually happening, which are only stories of how people are connecting around the world and it’s just amazing and it’s inspiring to hear.”
  - “That’s what the best movements do. You find ways to keep it focused on the needs of the community, and it’s not about you. And that’s the whole point of Friends Day. We felt like the world was making it too much about us and it’s not about us.”
- Sheryl Sandberg:
  - “One of the things that I really come out of my last year understanding is I am going to celebrate every birthday.”
  - “I want to say thank you to all of you for the inspiration because this is why we exist and there is nothing we would rather do than celebrate our birthday with you.”

Women from one Facebook Group called GirlCrew attended the Menlo Park event and we’re sharing their story as well.

Mark Zuckerberg meets 10-week-old Sohana Gulati, daughter of Raman Gulati and Priya Gulati. The couple met on Facebook.

DATA:

Over the past five years, the global Facebook community has more than doubled in size. Today we’re announcing that during that time period, the degrees of separation between a typical pair of Facebook users has continued to decrease to 3.57 degrees, down from about 3.74 degrees in 2011. This is a significant reflection of how closely connected we’ve become even as we’ve continued to grow.

PERSONALIZED VIDEO PRODUCT:

Starting today, we’re starting to roll out a personalized video experience to millions of people globally. These videos highlight friendships and memories in an editable and sharable video. Most people in the world will receive their video by mid-day on Friends Day (Thursday, February 4.)

Here are a few additional notes about the product:
- These Friends Day videos stitch together special moments with your friends in a short film that can be edited and shared.
- People with enough content will see their video at the top of News Feed. People can also see their Friends Day video by clicking “Watch Yours” below a friend’s Friends Day video.
- The first Friends Day video you see will be pre-populated with photos we think you’d like, but it is also customizable and any of the photos can be edited before you share it.
- After watching your video, you can simply share or edit it to customize the photos that are included. If you choose to customize your video, we’ll produce a new video for you with your selected photos and post it to your Timeline when it’s ready.

Saffanah Ghulam and Vinny Neri, who met on Vinny’s mail route in Rhode Island, use Facebook to stay in touch now that Saffanah has moved back to Saudi Arabia. Vinny’s daughter recently Lori Ayotte wrote about their connection in the New York Times.

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