Has #Facebook Peaked?

The social network lost users in America last month. Should Mark Zuckerberg be worried?

By Farhad Manjoo

 

Mark ZuckerbergFacebook's active user base grew by only 1.7 percent in May. That's about half its usual growth rate, and it came after similarly slow growth in April. According to Inside Facebook, a blog and research firm that tracks the site's traffic, most of the site's growth is now coming in developing countries. While Brazil, India, and Mexico saw huge gains, Facebook actually lost users in established markets. The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway, and Russia all saw recent declines. The numbers in the United States are particularly striking. Facebook had 155 million active users here at the start of May and only 149 million by the end of the month. (Facebook defines an "active" user as someone who logs in to the site at least once during the month.) In other words, 6 million Americans decided last month that they had better things to do than check Facebook.

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