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The social networking site only picked up 320,800 new users in the U.S. in June, according to Inside Facebook. That might sound like a lot -- until you compare

by novum 16y ago

The social networking site only picked up 320,800 new users in the U.S. in June, according to Inside Facebook. That might sound like a lot -- until you compare it with the number of new U.S. users the site grabbed in May: 7.8 million. Wow. What could have caused a decline like this? The end of the school year? The ongoing privacy brouhaha? Twitter?

all 16y ago
Almost certainly its the school break, family holidays, and the like. FWIW, I can only name one of the many FB users I know who thinks that the new privacy implementation isn't sufficient. Most people are pretty apathetic about privacy. I recall a study a couple years back that was held here in the UK and found that most people would have to have their identities stolen twice before they would start to re-think how they handle their data.
InclinedPlane 16y ago
Most likely the end of the school year. As much as I'd like to imagine that Facebook is dying (it has truly horrific usability), I don't think it's going away any time soon.
- what 16y ago
  Shouldn't there be more sign ups towards the end of the school year? So that people can keep in touch with their school friends over the summer. Maybe everyone already has a FB account.
- whatwhatwhat 16y ago
  Usability on facebook is "truly horrific" ...? lol..
  - apsurd 16y ago
    Actually I'd like a discussion on this. Are you kidding? I personally think fb usability is terrible as well. The thing is, I can see how thats likely intentional. It is obvious fb wants you to do certain things like share all your crap with friends all the time everywhere and anywhere. So everything that has to do with updates, pics, and the wall, well thats beautifully and easily within reach. But anything else....good luck. To be clear, I don't use fb, but I opened an account so that I can learn the api and make some page apps. The documentation is old, sporadic, a pain to find, and ...broken. Locating simple things like where my pages are seems to take me forever!! I just have a hard time finding anything on fb that doesn't have to do with status updates and "the wall". Course I am hardly an "average user" and half a billion people seem to think its good, right? right? Any thoughts on this?
    - mortenjorck 16y ago
      The funny thing is, Facebook had great usability compared to what it replaced for many people—Myspace—when its functionality was only comparable to what Myspace offered. As Facebook attempted to integrate itself into more of its users' lifestyles, though, its UI became unfit for the depth of social functionality it had to control.
      - chopsueyar 16y ago
        Most interestingly, from my personal observations, US users under the age of 18 prefer the "uncontrolled" nature of Myspace versus the structured "social institution" feel of Facebook. Also, as Facebook's users become more familiar with its workings (social, not technical), it becomes quite apparent that there are limitations to having all relationships equal. This is truly where Facebook fails. I have friends, I have a best friend, I have acquaintances (both business and social), and I have people I don't like, I may have some enemies, too. But in the realm of Facebook, all these people are my friends, and I have no way to differentiate that within the Facebook platform. I do not believe it is the UI that is the problem, but the underlying architecture of it's "social functionality".
  - wwortiz 16y ago
    My mom runs a facebook page not for her self but for an organization and she didn't know how to stop getting email notifications , she was reporting them as spam to no avail, and it was as simple as her not seeing the notification tab in options. Then after I had shown her that she had about 100 tick boxes to un tick. That is just a recent example of usability problems, to be honest these problems only are apparent in uncommon uses of facebook and for the simple part (messages and pictures and such) it is fine. Edit: I don't use facebook btw so I may be wrong from my troubleshooting experiences
  - code_duck 16y ago
    I don't know why I'm responding to a comment this vaporous, but yes, I agree with others that usability on facebook is awful. Their privacy menu, for instance. They seem to have made it confusing on purpose, including the redesign. I guess intentional poor usability is a different issue, though. As a new user of the site, it was never clear to me what each section was for. Trying to install apps kept leading me in circles. I clicked links and they never loaded. Facebook tells you pages are 404, when actually you're not authorized to view them. I didn't appear to be authorized to view someof my own pages... getting a 404 instead, which just looked like the site was screwed up (I guess it was, and it is, and as far as I can see it always has been and always will be). I don't even remember all the details, but I am very, very unimpressed with the design of their features. They should try getting a CEO focused on something other than copying everyone else, but then, that's how the company started I guess.
- paul9290 16y ago
  If it's school year. Anyone has sign up rates for June 2007, 08, 09?
  - wwortiz 16y ago
    By end of the school year he meant that school usually goes from August/September to May/June for the US and other countries, so the results should be similar if that is the case. However it is also a possibility that Facebook has grown large enough that the amount of new users is dwindling because it has already signed up the majority of willing users.
tokenadult 16y ago
What could have caused a decline like this? What could have caused a recent decline in the month-on-month new user numbers? Well, one possibility is a logistic growth curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_function http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_function based on Facebook having largely already saturated its easiest growth markets. No pattern of growth can remain exponential forever in a finite world.

by novum 16y ago

all 16y ago

Almost certainly its the school break, family holidays, and the like. FWIW, I can only name one of the many FB users I know who thinks that the new privacy implementation isn't sufficient. Most people are pretty apathetic about privacy. I recall a study a couple years back that was held here in the UK and found that most people would have to have their identities stolen twice before they would start to re-think how they handle their data.

InclinedPlane 16y ago

Most likely the end of the school year. As much as I'd like to imagine that Facebook is dying (it has truly horrific usability), I don't think it's going away any time soon.

what 16y ago
Shouldn't there be more sign ups towards the end of the school year? So that people can keep in touch with their school friends over the summer. Maybe everyone already has a FB account.
whatwhatwhat 16y ago
Usability on facebook is "truly horrific" ...? lol..
- apsurd 16y ago
  Actually I'd like a discussion on this. Are you kidding? I personally think fb usability is terrible as well. The thing is, I can see how thats likely intentional. It is obvious fb wants you to do certain things like share all your crap with friends all the time everywhere and anywhere. So everything that has to do with updates, pics, and the wall, well thats beautifully and easily within reach. But anything else....good luck. To be clear, I don't use fb, but I opened an account so that I can learn the api and make some page apps. The documentation is old, sporadic, a pain to find, and ...broken. Locating simple things like where my pages are seems to take me forever!! I just have a hard time finding anything on fb that doesn't have to do with status updates and "the wall". Course I am hardly an "average user" and half a billion people seem to think its good, right? right? Any thoughts on this?
  - mortenjorck 16y ago
    The funny thing is, Facebook had great usability compared to what it replaced for many people—Myspace—when its functionality was only comparable to what Myspace offered. As Facebook attempted to integrate itself into more of its users' lifestyles, though, its UI became unfit for the depth of social functionality it had to control.
    - chopsueyar 16y ago
      Most interestingly, from my personal observations, US users under the age of 18 prefer the "uncontrolled" nature of Myspace versus the structured "social institution" feel of Facebook. Also, as Facebook's users become more familiar with its workings (social, not technical), it becomes quite apparent that there are limitations to having all relationships equal. This is truly where Facebook fails. I have friends, I have a best friend, I have acquaintances (both business and social), and I have people I don't like, I may have some enemies, too. But in the realm of Facebook, all these people are my friends, and I have no way to differentiate that within the Facebook platform. I do not believe it is the UI that is the problem, but the underlying architecture of it's "social functionality".
- wwortiz 16y ago
  My mom runs a facebook page not for her self but for an organization and she didn't know how to stop getting email notifications , she was reporting them as spam to no avail, and it was as simple as her not seeing the notification tab in options. Then after I had shown her that she had about 100 tick boxes to un tick. That is just a recent example of usability problems, to be honest these problems only are apparent in uncommon uses of facebook and for the simple part (messages and pictures and such) it is fine. Edit: I don't use facebook btw so I may be wrong from my troubleshooting experiences
- code_duck 16y ago
  I don't know why I'm responding to a comment this vaporous, but yes, I agree with others that usability on facebook is awful. Their privacy menu, for instance. They seem to have made it confusing on purpose, including the redesign. I guess intentional poor usability is a different issue, though. As a new user of the site, it was never clear to me what each section was for. Trying to install apps kept leading me in circles. I clicked links and they never loaded. Facebook tells you pages are 404, when actually you're not authorized to view them. I didn't appear to be authorized to view someof my own pages... getting a 404 instead, which just looked like the site was screwed up (I guess it was, and it is, and as far as I can see it always has been and always will be). I don't even remember all the details, but I am very, very unimpressed with the design of their features. They should try getting a CEO focused on something other than copying everyone else, but then, that's how the company started I guess.
paul9290 16y ago
If it's school year. Anyone has sign up rates for June 2007, 08, 09?
- wwortiz 16y ago
  By end of the school year he meant that school usually goes from August/September to May/June for the US and other countries, so the results should be similar if that is the case. However it is also a possibility that Facebook has grown large enough that the amount of new users is dwindling because it has already signed up the majority of willing users.

tokenadult 16y ago

What could have caused a decline like this? What could have caused a recent decline in the month-on-month new user numbers? Well, one possibility is a logistic growth curve http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_function http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logistic_function based on Facebook having largely already saturated its easiest growth markets. No pattern of growth can remain exponential forever in a finite world.