Facebook wants to connect five billion of the world’s seven billion people through its social network by 2030, up from its current 1.59 billion, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on the company’s twelfth birthday.

“We want to finish connecting everyone, we’re going to do it in partnership with governments and different companies all over the world,” Zuckerberg commented, according to a USA Today report.

One way Facebook could achieve this is by deploying drones to bring internet to the unconnected. Referring to Aquila, the drone Facebook is working on, the CEO said: “It’s solar-powered, and it’ll just fly around a city and beam down Internet access. It’s pretty crazy, right?”

However, the company has hit some snags with its Free Basics initiative, which brings unconnected users online by offering a set of internet content for no access cost, particularly in emerging markets.

Zuckerberg also spoke about the benefits of virtual reality at the event. The company has begun taking pre-orders for its Oculus VR headsets, which will begin shipping later in the year.

“You can convey emotions through text, and photos, and videos get (you) closer, but actually being able to feel like you are there is going to be amazingly powerful when the medium becomes mature,” he said.

“We’re reaching this period where video is going to be the primary thing we use on the Internet, because of the emotional weight of it,” he added.

Meanwhile, a peer-to-peer payment platform is one thing the company is not currently pursuing: “We feel while we understand communications a bit, payments is a little further remote for us,” he said. “But we will get there over time, or someone will.”

Nigeria milestone
The social network giant also announced a milestone in Nigeria, with 100 per cent of its users in the country now visiting the service on a mobile device. It attracts 16 million people every month.

“We’re only 1 per cent done in Nigeria and inspired to do even more in this fast-moving, mobile first country,” said Nicola Mendelsohn, VP, EMEA, at Facebook.