Facebook lost 6 million users in May

Jeanwah

Why Facebook lost 6 million U.S. users: 4 theories

The social networking giant reportedly lost quite a few friends in May. Market saturation, or the beginning of the end?

Facebook may be nearing 700 million users with a $100-billion IPO on the horizon, but all may not be well in Zuckerberg land. According to Inside Facebook, the social networking giant lost nearly 6 million users in the United States in May, along with 1.52 million in Canada and hundreds of thousands in the United Kingdom, Norway, and Russia. The company still managed to add 11.8 million new users worldwide last month, but its growth has been slowing significantly. What's happening? Here, four theories:

1. Facebook has made as many friends as it can
Mark Zuckerberg and Co. may be "hitting a saturation point in key markets," especially in the U.S., where roughly 50 percent of the population is already on Facebook, says Kent Bernhard Jr. at Portfolio. If that's the case, the social network might not be able to reach Zuckerberg's goal of 1 billion users without conquering China (and its strict online censorship).

2. People are sick of Facebook
"I think users are deleting their accounts because they... are burnt out," says Lindsay Mannering at The Stir. Even Bill Gates, a Zuckerberg friend and Facebook investor, recently quit the social networking site, saying his friend requests had gotten "out of hand." I don't blame him. "Between the feeds and the friends, it's too much... more of an obligation than a fun way to pass a few minutes." No wonder people are logging off for good.

3. This is just a temporary dip
"Seasonal changes like college graduations, and other short-term factors, can influence numbers month to month and obscure what's really happening," says Eric Eldon at Inside Facebook. These May figures are certainly intriguing, but let's not overreact. The long-term trends are the ones that really matter.

4. Other social networks are on the rise
It's "worth noting" that Twitter and LinkedIn are gaining in many of the areas that Facebook saw big losses — namely the U.S. Canada, and the United Kingdom, says Robin Wauters at TechCrunch. But let's not forget that "on a global level... Facebook is drawing more visitors than ever."
http://theweek.com/article/index/216280 ... 4-theories



What do you guys think is the reason? I personally believe that FB has "jumped the shark".

blackredyellow

I check it like once a day anymore.... I used to check it a lot more when I was curious to see what other people were up to, but now I am back to not caring about people who I didn't care about for the years between when I actually knew them, and when I found them on facebook.

touchme.imdick

I'm personally tired of sharing it with my parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles and everyone else that would never be allowed anywhere near my social sphere. Who invites Great Aunt Susie out to a keg party or to the bar with their friends? This is what it's like having all the oldies on there. I liked it when it was just a place to stay connected with my college buds and find out what's going on for the weekend.

This is why I'M tired of Facebook. :x

BinauralJam

I joined in May :crazy:

Blockhead

maybe people are finally growing up... Why people feel the needs to comment/tell everything they do is pathetic...
I don't have FB but my wife does, I see it on the computer screen sometimes and I see people write "going to Cancun for Spring Break, see you in a week"... I always want to write back to them "Thank you for telling me your house will be empty for a week, I will now be robbing your house".

mikalina

I'm glad.... my friends convinced me to sign up - which I did. 4 months later I closed the account.

why...

1. I talk to my friends every day -

2. I hated all the Bragging that went on and on and on....

3. I wasn't too crazy about "adding" new friends that so and so knows - I did because I felt I had to.

4. I felt pressure to respond to every single written "comment" made

5. one of my friends would actually ask me - why didn't you go on FB today !!!! - I'm busy, thats why !!!

6. I'm sure I have more to add - but this is good enough.

whygohome

I freely admit that I have an inexplicable, possibly unjustified, hatred of Facebook. I hate it.....so much, so much, so much.
In the age where all anyone cares about is being on TV, Facebook and Youtube are as close as most people can get, and therein lies the popularity of these sites. Sad.

Prince Of Dorkness

Apparently a big part of it was purging accounts that hadn't been used in years or were never fully-created.

But yeah, it can get tedious.

That said... my biggest mistake was not using a pseudonym for my job... which means I have porn fans interacting with my distant elderly aunts and my 5th grade music teacher.

My Facebook wall is a cluster fuck of gay bikers, Atlantic Canadians, porn fans and people I used to work with.

I kinda dig that.

gimmesometruth27

i don't really use mine that much anymore. i get on there every other day or so to reply to messages and maybe to a status update every week or so and every few months add some pics of my band or something but that is really about it. i like having access to people i know, but the friends of friends things kind of sucks. makes me feel obligated to add them. i just did a massive defriending a month or so ago. it is just that some of them were not really all that great of friends...

Cosmo

Because of Facebook... I figured out where the Foo Fighters were playing. A small club... for 20 bucks... about 30 miles from me. Made it there in time to get the front row.
Sometimes... Facebook pays off.

wolfbear

touchme.imdick wrote:

I'm personally tired of sharing it with my parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles and everyone else that would never be allowed anywhere near my social sphere. Who invites Great Aunt Susie out to a keg party or to the bar with their friends? This is what it's like having all the oldies on there. I liked it when it was just a place to stay connected with my college buds and find out what's going on for the weekend.

This is why I'M tired of Facebook. :x

I'm just the opposite. Our whole family is on and we love it. Great way to communicate. But, no secrets in our family, it's all fun and good times. I can see how some wouldn't like it. We have had ages from 8 to 90 and all used it. It is what you make it and it for sure won't change the relationships in your family! Either it will make them stronger or weaker depending....:)

Hugh Freaking Dillon

I'm one of those 1.6 million Canadians. I've been trying to spend less and less time on the computer (this damn site and grungereport.net are my achilles). facebook, for me at least, was a collosal waste of time. the one thing I miss is getting all my favourite band news in one neat little package.....unfortunately, that neat little package was so convoluted with garbage I didn't have the time to filter through it all. But so many bands are not updated their websites anymore......all their "news" is on facebook. i'm a music news junkie, but jesus, I just don't give a fuck about where (insert musician name here) went last night and who they saw.

and twitter, my god, don't get me started on that shit. Never been on it, but the mere idea of it creeps the fuck out of me. I can't imagine wanting to have "drive thru facebook". who wants to follow people they don't even fucking know? the world is just one big stalker now!

polaris_x

Prince Of Dorkness wrote:

That said... my biggest mistake was not using a pseudonym for my job... which means I have porn fans interacting with my distant elderly aunts and my 5th grade music teacher.

My Facebook wall is a cluster fuck of gay bikers, Atlantic Canadians, porn fans and people I used to work with.

I kinda dig that.

this is awesome to read in the morning!! ... :thumbup: :thumbup:

JonnyPistachio

Cosmo wrote:

Because of Facebook... I figured out where the Foo Fighters were playing. A small club... for 20 bucks... about 30 miles from me. Made it there in time to get the front row.
Sometimes... Facebook pays off.

I find that many places around me are getting lazy with advertising, and many just become complacent using facebook. I use it a lot to find out whats going on in my area as far as good original music (which is always a little difficult to find in south florida).. Igo out to see live music almost every weekend, and I use FB to see who is playing at my local 3-4 venues.
I'm pretty social, and i find it difficult to keep up with a lot of people all the time, and facebook helps as a reminder sometimes. I actually don't converse much on the FB, but i'll see someones pictures and get reminded to call them sometime soon.. I find it is a great tool if you know how to use it to your advantage.

I usually just hide the majority of 'friends', especially the ones who post annoying or negative shit all the time.

JonnyPistachio

polaris_x wrote:

Prince Of Dorkness wrote:

That said... my biggest mistake was not using a pseudonym for my job... which means I have porn fans interacting with my distant elderly aunts and my 5th grade music teacher.

My Facebook wall is a cluster fuck of gay bikers, Atlantic Canadians, porn fans and people I used to work with.

I kinda dig that.

this is awesome to read in the morning!! ... :thumbup: :thumbup:

cracked me up too!

unsung

Actually many people have quit because of the privacy issues that facebook forces you to comply with.

I've got pictures of my dogs on there (Rottweilers) but I've never mentioned Rottweiler on my page. Yet everyday I'm spammed on the side of my page asking me about Rottweilers. My page is also private and can't be found in a search and non-friends can't view anything.

Jeanwah

I use FB for 2 things: the chat feature with friends who live far away from me, and updates of bands like Foos and independent news sources. Otherwise, I find it useless! I've resorted to hiding most "friends" and privatizing my page because I just feel the site is "too public". Not to mention that I get that eerie feeling of "Big Brother is watching" on FB. They're watching on that site more than any other.

But it does feel like the enormous popularity has reached its tipping point.

he still stands

I see that Facebook now has facial recognition technology. It suggests friends to "tag" using this technology and is automatically enabled. I would suggest you shut it off on your Facebook, or even better... delete your account!

Also... I just joined this new thing called "Myspace." It takes 15 minutes for one page to load but its so cool!

81

why..it's all friggen advertising...everything attached to google/facebook/a shit ton of url's is all about the ad's.

pass pass pass

lukin2006

Blockhead wrote:

maybe people are finally growing up... Why people feel the needs to comment/tell everything they do is pathetic...
I don't have FB but my wife does, I see it on the computer screen sometimes and I see people write "going to Cancun for Spring Break, see you in a week"... I always want to write back to them "Thank you for telling me your house will be empty for a week, I will now be robbing your house".

I never understood why people want to advertise that they are not going to be home...I see all the time...you are just asking for something bad to happen.