Is Facebook’s growth slowing down?

Jul 8, 2010 by Dirk Singer

Some interesting stats from the US (source – Inside Facebook) , which shows that in June, Facebook only gained 320k users, compared to a whopping 7.8 million in May.   Not only that, among 18-44 year olds – Facebook’s core demographic – the number of users actually dropped, with growth coming from the under 18s and over 45s.

At the moment it’s unclear whether press coverage on privacy issues led to the drop in younger users, whether it’s a blip, or whether the market is becoming saturated.

However, compare Inside Facebook’s US stats with the European ones.   European growth was only 0.7%, with the network being stagnant in most Western European markets except Germany.

Instead, the main growth area for Facebook in Europe came from the central and eastern European countries – Romania, Hungary and Russia (where localised social networks such as vkontakte dominate).   Inside Facebook says that ‘Greater Europe’ (including Russia and Turkey) now accounts for a third of Facebook’s user base, with 152 million members.