Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber may be the queen and king of Twitter, but Colombian pop megastar Shakira is the ruler of Facebook. This past week, the singer became the first person ever to hit 100 million likes on the most popular social network in the world.
In just five years, Shakira has gone from little over 300,000 likes to 100 million. According to The Wall Street Journal, which tracked how she became such a force on Facebook, that’s 8 percent of Facebook’s entire population of 1.28 billion monthly users.
The only two Facebook pages that have more likes are Facebook’s own brand page and a page for its mobile app.
Shakira, who just performed at the closing ceremony for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, told the WSJ that it’s “just an unfathomable number.” Becoming the most popular person on Facebook is “something I never necessarily anticipated but a really welcoming and heartwarming surprise.”
That Cup performance put her over the milestone hump. After her performance, she had 3 billion Facebook interactions from 350 million fans.
It’s also worth noting that Shakira’s fanbase is international. Only 11 percent of the likes are from U.S. users.
Shakira has used her Facebook profile to share both personal and professional news. Not only is it a way for her to promote her new albums, recordings and TV appearances, but she has also used it to post adorable videos and photos of Milan, her son with boyfriend Gerard Pique.
After reaching the milestone, Shakira posted a thank-you message to fans. The “Hips Don’t Lie” singer also posted various infographics to show off the numbers.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com