Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he's trying to control costs at the same time he wants to take advantage of the recession and hire more engineers. He plans to hire hundreds of people this year, boosting Facebook's staff as much as 50 percent.
Currently, Facebook has about 1,000 employees but plans to grow at a slower pace than Google, which nearly doubled its staff in each of the three years since it went public in 2005.
Despite the hiring plans, Zuckerberg said he's trying to contain costs, which is why his staff is housed in an old Palo Alto, Calif., building with cement floors. He said a building "can be a sign that you've made it" and he wants the building to feel like "a very large garage."
Facebook has 250 million users and has received $600 million in investments. Revenue comes from ads, including J.C. Penney and Nike, and an online payment system  for gifts. COO Sheryl Sandberg expects 70 percent revenue growth this year compared to 2008, and board member Marc Andreessen says the total should be at least $500 million.
Zuckerberg told Bloomberg that his goal is one billion users. He also said he expects social networks to become essential, like Web browsers.
Earlier this month, Facebook agreed to buy FriendFeed to gain engineering talent.
By contrast, rival social-networking site MySpace has been cutting jobs and is becoming more of an entertainment site.
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