Real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first athlete to have 100 million Facebook followers.
Cristiano Ronaldo. Photo: AFP
This puts him nearly 30 million fans in front of Barcelona's Lionel Messi, his rival for world No 1 footballer.
Of Ronaldo followers, 78 percent are men and 22 percent are women, and are most commonly called Luis, Mohamed, Ali, Jose and Maria. They mainly come from Brazil, Indonesia, India, Mexico and the United States, the BBC reports.
The commercial power of Ronaldo, who also has 30.5 million Twitter followers, was demonstrated when he posted six messages over two days advertising the Tag Heuer watch brand.
These received 34.9 million Facebook hits and 2.4 million likes, which the watch company values at $600,000.
Ronaldo's former Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney earlier this month became the first Premier League footballer to reach 10 million followers on Twitter.
