Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK?
The analysts at Experian Hitwise think it’s just a matter of time. In the latest Hitwise newsletter, the web usage measurement firm says that at 26 million users, the UK Facebook population very likely has hit its “saturation point.” Sure enough, a look at some tell-tale usage statistics show the Facebook growth engine in the UK just might be, gasp, running out of steam. First, the good news. In the UK, Facebook is the largest web property–yep, bigger than Google–in terms of page views. In fact, one in six web pages viewed in the UK is Facebook.
Now, the not so good news:
Facebook’s market share of UK page views has trebled over the last five years, but growth has slowed significantly over the last six months….Another metric is average time spent on the site, a key metric for user engagement on social networks. Facebook has a very high average session time (almost half an hour) but, this has also stabilised over the last six months after increasing rapidly during the site’s ascendency. Clearly Facebook is not losing traffic in the UK, but do these stats point to a stabilisation? The rapid period of the site’s growth is now probably over in the UK, but does that mean Facebook has reached saturation point?
Hitwise has put together this chart to show the usage story:
For Facebook, a leveling-off is inevitable. It still has spectacular usage numbers in the UK and will be vying with Google for some time over the Number 1 ranking. But then, we’re not investors in Facebook. They may read these plateauing usage figures differently.
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SMI writes:: Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? http://socialmediainfluence.com/2010/08/25/has-facebook-hit-a-wall-in-the-uk/
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Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? – The analysts at Experian Hitwise think it’s just a matter of time. In the lates… http://ow.ly/18IP8u
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Interesting post for my UK friends: “Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK?” /by Social Media Influence http://bit.ly/9D1SDN
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Has FB hit a wall in UK? http://ow.ly/1qO2ET >> b/c teens looking 4 their own playground rather thn follwing the older herd? #socialstrategy
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Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? http://bit.ly/bHRtUi via @AddToAny
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Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? http://ow.ly/1qO2ET
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Always interesting to speculate about online brands ”waxing and waning’ but the Google page view comparison is misleading. Google’s success is based on the having the lowest page view possible. Enter a term – get the most relevant results – click through – job done.
Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? http://ow.ly/1qO2ET
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Has facebook hot saturation point in the UK? With 26m users, i think it has – http://bit.ly/aDDHiR
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Combined with the negative tone of last night’s #fdgl tweets and this post http://bit.ly/aDDHiR – is Facebook going down hill?
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Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? http://ow.ly/1qO2ET
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Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? http://bit.ly/bHRtUi via @AddToAny
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We agree that yes there was a boom in Facebook usage, but with local business adopting more savvy methods of promoting their businesses we don’t think that they have hit saturation point.
We think that there will be an emergence of professional profiles as businesses slowly begin to realise the benefits of social media, and actually begin to invest time and or money into not only Facebook, but the different social media platforms available.
Saturation point for facebook? http://bit.ly/aDDHiR
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A good post and thanks for pointing out this Hitwise research I had missed earlier in the month.
However ,this isn’t perhaps the beginning of the end for Facebook, but the end of the beginning? Page views are one metric but not everything. It now needs to focus on monetisation and leveraging what it is good at.
I’ve had my own thoughts on what this all means here:
http://press20.blogspot.com/2010/08/uk-facebook-at-saturation-point.html
(and would welcome you feedback)
Anyone for some sheep throwing?
Hayden
[...] Social Media Influence haalt een onderzoek aan dat aangeeft dat het er op lijkt dat in de UK met 26 miljoen gebruikers het verzadigingspunt bijna is bereikt. Het goede nieuws voor Facebook is dat het netwerk (in page views gemeten) in de UK Facebook groter is dan Google. Sterker: één op de zes bekeken webpagina’s in de UK is een Facebookpagina. Niettemin neemt de groei de afgelopen 6 maanden (wederom in page views) duidelijk af. Bovendien is de gemiddelde tijd dat een gebruiker op Facebook zit (bijna een half uur gemiddeld) voor het eerst niet meer groeit. Facebook verliest geen traffic in de UK, maar de groei lijkt eruit te zijn AKPC_IDS += "1381,"; [...]
Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? http://ow.ly/1qO2ET @racepointgroup #RPGUK
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Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? http://bit.ly/bB1nDZ
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[...] page without an individual page, so the number of users could increase. Facebook usage numbers are leveling off in some countries, so you’d better throw some fuel in that fire, [...]
Can FaceBook hit saturation? Seems so! Check out the UK: http://bit.ly/aUfvkj
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Has Facebook hit a wall in the UK? http://bit.ly/9kevxp
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The end of Facebook in the UK? http://ow.ly/2v1r4 I doubt it, but makes interesting reading none-the-less!
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