Facebook loses members in major markets
Facebook traffic dropped in Canada, Norway, Russia, the UK and US last month, according to social media blog Inside Facebook.
The countries with member losses and traffic slowdown are places in which Facebook had been established longer. In the US, Facebook lost almost 6 million users in May, while Canada lost 1.52 million. Norway, Russia and the UK lost almost 100,000 users.
Despite losing traffic in developed markets, the social network grew audiences by 11.8m overall and is nearing 700m in total. Facebook was growing by over 20m members a month until April but has since seen slower growth, even in its developing markets.
Eric Eldon, editor of Inside Facebook, says: “By the time Facebook reaches around 50% of the total population in any country (depending on internet access rates in that country), growth generally slows to a halt.”
The blog used its Inside Facebook Gold data service to analyse which countries saw the most growth or loss in monthly active users during May.
Facebook’s most recent official member total is 500 million, although analytics companies have estimated this to be over 600 million globally.
This story first appeared on New Media Age. For more digital stories and analysis from NMA click here now
