Hypes Don't Last Forever - Facebook in Decline

The last week brought some big news "Facebook Falters In Europe" according to the latest traffic data (Nielsen)

- UK: 8.5 million unique users in Britain spent time on Facebook in January, down from 8.9 million in December
- France: 1.87 million unique users in January, down from 1.89 million in December
- Spain:  659.000 unique users in January, down from 682.000

According to comScore, Facebook levels off in USA and keeps on growing worldwide.

Facebook in USA













Facebook Worldwide















We are talking about decline that is the consequence of the "friendly spam" deflouring Facebook and privacy issues. The European decline is also the sign for the stabilization of the hype that was created around Facebook. We are living in times where online and social services and brands take off primarily due to hypes created by easily influenced people influencing other easily influenced people and generate interest -> traffic. At some point it gets stabilized, people get bored, seek for something new, they want  the new hype, the new stimuli. 

"A lot of people who jumped onto Facebook over the past year and built up their friends and used applications are tiring of it," said Alex Burmaster from Nielsen "The aura has worn off a bit."

Via Techcrunch & Guardian

Tags: Facebook, social networks, social media, traffic