UK Facebook users 'dropped 5% in January'

by Nik Fletcher Feb 22nd 2008

For all the talk of Facebook being the $15-billion dollar social network de jour, it would appear that the heavyweight may be losing its touch, at least in the UK. The BBC quotes Nielsen Online figures for last month, showing Facebook dropping from 8.9 million to 8.5 million visitors -- the first drop in visitors since records started for Facebook in July 2006.

Now, the drop of just 400,00 may not be all that substantial, but some of us here at Download Squad know of folks still rather mad at being unable to close their accounts (well, at least of free will) and certainly among contacts of ours there is, shall we say, a weariness with Facebook right now. Whether that translates into a continual drop in Facebook's visitor numbers, or this is just a monthly lull (perhaps brought on by friends posting less than endearing photos after the New Year) is anyone's guess.

Update: Facebook have since got in touch to say: "The number of users for Facebook continues to climb in the UK. Our internal monthly active user numbers rose between December and January in the UK and are now at more than 8.3 million. Facebook tracks active monthly users, rather than registered user or unique visitors. Active users reflect those who have used the site in the past 30 days."

Tags: facebook, visitor-numbers

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

JayMonster said 2:33PM on 2-22-2008

I will not be surprised to see drops elsewhere as well soon.

Many people I talk to, are tiring of the sheer volume of requests for inviations to every silly app under the sun, many of which are duplicates of other services as well.

The release of the API to make Facebook was originally seen as a major plus for the service, but until those first real killer apps start showing up, the string of "me too" apps are going to start driving people away. I mean who want to be a werewolf/vampire/pirate?

Mike said 4:53PM on 2-22-2008

Seriously, I'm stopping by Facebook less and less, too. I used to be able to drop by and see new or interesting stuff, but that's no longer the case anymore. Maybe my friends are all just getting boring. :)

It seems like I mostly login to Facebook to take care of stuff - dismiss requests to join stupid groups, dismiss requests to add stupid applications, etc.

That's an idea, though...if you ever want to permanently delete your Facebook account, just break their terms of service. Sounds like they'd be happy to kick you out, in that case.

I deleted my MySpace account, and I'd like the freedom to delete my Facebook account, too. Facebook should respect that, considering how much they talk about "openness" and such (like the price they've got in their open source projects, for example).

Mike said 4:54PM on 2-22-2008

Meant to say "pride", not "price". Sorry.

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