Facebook report says its 1.35B users have $227B global economic impact

If you thought Facebook was just one giant time-suck vortex where your life disappears while sharing cat videos and finding quizzes to discover which character on “Friends” you most resemble, then here’s some good news: You are actually doing your part to boost the world’s economy.

The social networking site had a global economic impact of $227 billion and indirectly created 4.5 million jobs in 2014, according to a new report commissioned by Facebook and conducted by Deloitte.

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“Our study finds that Facebook enables significant global economic activity by helping to unlock new opportunities through connecting people and businesses, lowering barriers to marketing, and stimulating innovation,” Jolyon Barker, Deloitte’s Global Managing Director of Technology, Media & Telecommunications, said in a statement.

Deloitte said Facebook generates economic activity through its marketing tools, its app platform, and the incentive it creates among its users to consume more mobile broadband and data services.

The biggest impact, not surprisingly, is North America, with $104 billion in economic activity, followed by the European-Middle East-Africa region at $64 billion.

You can download the full report here (pdf).