Facebook usage hits new low in 3 years (in the UK)

You know what they say – there is a limit to everything, and it seems as though Facebook has seen it in terms of growth. Sure, they might have more than 750 million users worldwide, but research company Experian Hitwise claims that Facebook usage has hit a new 3-year low, despite retaining its status as the most popular social network in the UK (and in most parts of the world, no doubt about that), making up slightly more than half of all Internet visits where social networks are concerned. It did suffer a drop from its 53.7% share of the UK market in June, representing what Experian Hitwise calls a “significant loss.”The last time Facebook’s dominance of the UK social market was this low was October 2009, where it made up 50.5% of all visits to the category. Video sharing website, YouTube, added its number of visits to touch the 22.5% mark, making it the fastest-growing social networking site in the UK for five months straight to date. That’s fine and dandy, but Google still needs to find a way to monetize YouTube (Google said on Aug 3 that profitability was “near”).

As for Google’s latest baby, Google+, is remains a relatively small player but as with most perceived lightweights, Google+ has the highest growth rate among the rest of its rivals. Do you think that Facebook on the whole is on a sharp decline, or at least retreating as people look to the next big thing? Perhaps Facebook Messenger might help Mark Zuckerberg and co. turn things around. Do bear in mind that Facebook is far from being a spent force – it is still the juggernaut of social networking, and it will take far more than just a few percentage point drops to threaten its existence.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Computers
Tags: Facebook, social networks