14 DAY TRIAL // Flickr is one of the most popular photo sharing sites out there, and it has been for years, but it's far from being the largest. That title goes to Facebook, but Flickr has some milestone of its own to brag about, apparently the site has just got its 5 billionth photo.
According to the Media Culpa blog, the site has recently reached the milestone. You can check it out for yourself since Flickr numbers the photos itself in the URL.
The 5 billionth is here flickr.com/photos/yeoaaron/5000000000/. However, Flickr may not name the photos chronologically, so that photo may not be exactly the 5 billionth, but it's pretty clear that the number has been reached.
Flickr has been seeing steady growth for the past few years, though steady growth is not what most companies are looking for.
A steady increase in the number of photos uploaded means that users aren't leaving, but it also means that new ones are flocking to the site either.
Flickr reached the 4 billion photos milestone in October last year, 3 billion in November 2008 and 2 billion in November 2007, the year it saw its biggest growth in activity.
Recently, it seems like Flickr adds another billion once every 11 months.
For comparison, Facebook said earlier this year that users uploaded 2.5 billion photos every month. While the social network hasn't revealed this kind of stats too often, it safe to say that there are well over 50 billion photos on Facebook at this point.
Of course, it's not fair to compare Flickr to Facebook and not just because Facebook isn't a dedicated photo sharing site. The two services cover different needs. Facebook may be great for uploading vacation photos to share with your friends, it's not the best showcase for artsy photos.