In my last post I discussed a decrease in traffic to Facebook being highly unlikely. I reached out to Compete.com CEO, Don McLagan, who has just released last months data which confirms the decrease in traffic.
Pretty shocking that Facebook has experienced a decrease in traffic given that school started at the end of August or beginning of September. Although in reality this is not that shocking considering my previous post about “The Myth of School Year Traffic.” Additionally, the launch of the platform has resulted in a ton of buzz, resulting in an increase in registrations. Perhaps the addition of all these application requests has driven people away from the site.
Whatever the case is, two large web statistic organizations have both confirmed the decrease. What do you think the reason is?
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Hi,The facebook hysteria hit sweden (where I'm from)a couple of months ago. 400 000 of 9 million swedes are registered. A bit interesting is that it has never been a "student phenomena". It's more common with people that has begun their proffesional career and are using facebook to keep in touch but also create business oppurtunities. My theory is that a decrease in students active on facebook will continue as facebook becomes more comerceilized and less appealing to students.Nick, great blog.
Comment by Kristoffer — October 11, 2007 @ 11:01 am
After those intense three or four month with Facebook hype everywhere in the english speaking community it is probably quite normal that some people got annoyed by it or just discovered that social networking is nothing for them. I would not worry too much about that because even if Facebook is "loosing" a few users in the US Europe will come big time. Right now I am living in Sweden and as Kristoffer said – here and everywhere in Scandinavia its THE thing at the moment. Against what Germany where I am from originally is starting to feel the Facebook vibe just in these days. Same for France that already has an increase of about 6000 users per day. Expect to see big parts of Europe becoming Facebook addicted soon.GreetingsMartin
Comment by Martin — October 11, 2007 @ 11:17 am
Good point Kristoffer. I do agree with you. The good thing about them getting involved in the professional aspect of the internet buys them a little more longevity. Sure they might losing a bit of traffic, but the traffic that they are gaining is a little less "flaky".Maybe they are just finally starting to level out. I don't really think one month of their traffic decreasing is hardly enough to get excited about.-Doug <a href="http://www.informativepost.com” target=”_blank”>www.informativepost.com
Comment by Douglas — October 11, 2007 @ 11:20 am
We need to look at this in terms of a year on year comparison to better understand whether it's a trend or not.Having worked in a field with massive seasonal variations (namely travel) we need to consider seasonality with a reference point.Also consider the number of corporations who now ban this during office hours. It's clearly still got a fanatical user base, even if many are unable to log in during office hours.Paul
Comment by Paul Reilly — October 11, 2007 @ 11:53 am
Hi,
The facebook hysteria hit sweden (where I'm from)a couple of months ago. 400 000 of 9 million swedes are registered. A bit interesting is that it has never been a "student phenomena". It's more common with people that has begun their proffesional career and are using facebook to keep in touch but also create business oppurtunities.
My theory is that a decrease in students active on facebook will continue as facebook becomes more comerceilized and less appealing to students.
Nick, great blog.
Comment by Kristoffer — October 11, 2007 @ 12:01 pm
There is the likelihood that mid-term examinations at universities across North America have decreased the usage of Facebook in the past week.
Comment by Faz — October 11, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
After those intense three or four month with Facebook hype everywhere in the english speaking community it is probably quite normal that some people got annoyed by it or just discovered that social networking is nothing for them.
I would not worry too much about that because even if Facebook is "loosing" a few users in the US Europe will come big time. Right now I am living in Sweden and as Kristoffer said – here and everywhere in Scandinavia its THE thing at the moment. Against what Germany where I am from originally is starting to feel the Facebook vibe just in these days. Same for France that already has an increase of about 6000 users per day. Expect to see big parts of Europe becoming Facebook addicted soon.
Greetings
Martin
Comment by Martin — October 11, 2007 @ 12:17 pm
Good point Kristoffer. I do agree with you. The good thing about them getting involved in the professional aspect of the internet buys them a little more longevity. Sure they might losing a bit of traffic, but the traffic that they are gaining is a little less "flaky".
Maybe they are just finally starting to level out. I don't really think one month of their traffic decreasing is hardly enough to get excited about.
-Doug
http://www.informativepost.com
Comment by Douglas — October 11, 2007 @ 12:20 pm
We need to look at this in terms of a year on year comparison to better understand whether it's a trend or not.
Having worked in a field with massive seasonal variations (namely travel) we need to consider seasonality with a reference point.
Also consider the number of corporations who now ban this during office hours. It's clearly still got a fanatical user base, even if many are unable to log in during office hours.
Paul
Comment by Paul Reilly — October 11, 2007 @ 12:53 pm
There is the likelihood that mid-term examinations at universities across North America have decreased the usage of Facebook in the past week.
Comment by Faz — October 11, 2007 @ 4:16 pm
I find it interesting that Compete also shows a drop in the usage of myspace and bebo as well, not just facebook. <a href="http://siteanalytics.compete.com/facebook.com+myspace.com+bebo.com/?metric=uv"> <a href="http://;http://siteanalytics.compete.com/facebook.com+m…;http://siteanalytics.compete.com/facebook.com+m…<br />Can anyone explain that?
Comment by Brian — October 11, 2007 @ 5:41 pm
I find it interesting that Compete also shows a drop in the usage of myspace and bebo as well, not just facebook.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/facebook.com+mys...
Can anyone explain that?
Comment by Brian — October 11, 2007 @ 6:41 pm