Facebook doubles headcount with help from the recession

Zuckerberg, in an interview with Bloomberg, said that Facebook is taking advantage of other companies' incapacity to hire new staff during the recession, to snap up engineers.

"No one else has been hiring," said Zuckerberg. "It's been a great environment for us because the economy has helped out." While more established companies dependent on advertising have struggled, the Facebook chief executive has been busy convincing brands to advertise on Facebook and has been largely successful.

Revenues at Facbook are expected to be up 70 per cent in 2009, compared to 2008 and the company has cashflow to hire and make acquisitions akin to the recent purchase of FriendFeed for $50 million . 

Facebook is also poised to expand its global presence through the launch of Facebook Lite, a simplified version of the site that will be more accessible on mobile phones and in markets where bandwidth is slow. 

Meanwhile the social network's valuation has remained high. The $200 million invested in Facebook for 2 per cent equity by Russian company Digital Sky Technoligies values Facebook at $10 billion.

But Zuckerberg said that the social network doesn't intend to plough the cash into investment but rather sees it as a buffer to be called upon only when required.