Facebook is reportedly close to adding its 700 millionth user, indicating that the social network is on track to cross the billion person mark sometime in 2012. Good luck catching up, Google.

Facebook is "closing in" on 700 million users, according to tracking site Social Bakers, which cites especially strong growth in Brazil, where Facebook nabbed an estimated 1.9 million users in May, many from Google's Orkut. This would square nicely with Facebook's previously observed growth rate of 20 million users per month, give or take, which the company has sustained since September 2009.

At this rate, Facebook should cross 1 billion users some time next fall, putting would-be competitors like Google quite far from the social network's tail lights — to say nothing of Facebook's would-be regulators.

[via Business Insider, photo via Getty]