FACEBOOK’S TOTAL POPULATION is now almost 700 million – but the site’s rate of growth is apparently beginning to slow down, according to new membership data.
While the world’s largest social networking site is continuing to find new users in emerging markets, Inside Facebook has noted that it’s beginning to lose members in the US in Canada – where it lost around 7.5 million users in May 2011.
US membership fell by almost six million, falling just below the 150 million mark, while Canadian membership dropped by 1.5 million to 16.6.
The drop in North American membership dented the overall global growth rate for Facebook membership: the site’s new registrants for May numbered 11.8 million – far lower than the usual 20 million new members registered each month.
Inside Facebook also noted that membership in the UK, Norway and Russia had fallen too – by around 100,000 in each case. A growth rate for Irish users was not available.
The slowdown indicates a previous theory that the site struggles to extend beyond 50 per cent of the population of any particular country – a pattern which threatens to damage Facebook’s hopes to reach an active user base of one billion.
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