Is Facebook Fading?

Can it really be true? Is Facebook loosing it’s luster?  The social network’s overall growth has been lower than usual for two months which Inside Facebook reports as “unusual”.

Facebook reached 687 million monthly active users by the beginning of June. Most of the newcomers are from countries such as Mexico, Brazil, India, Indonesia, etc. that were late to incorporate Facebook into their lifestyles. Can you imagine?

Six million users from the United States ditched Facebook falling from 155.2 million to 149.4 million according to figures released from Inside Facebook. Canada, the United Kingdom, Norway and Russia did likewise.

Why did this happen?

• Seasonal changes such as school graduations, summer vacations, etc.
• Facebook advertising issues.
• Growth lags once Facebook becomes adopted by 50% of a country.
• Privacy concerns.
• Technical issues with Facebook in general. I’ve been having a lot lately. The main one is the page not refreshing properly. It will show my profile picture from two weeks ago sometimes.

Mark’s goal is to reach 1 billion active users. Some say he’ll have a hard time hitting 800 million by the start of 2012.

What do I think?

This is just a minor blip on the Facebook radar.  Mark has as unmatched ability to stay ahead of the curve and predict what most people will want in the future. Will it be Faceboook TV? Journalism? Merchant services? Some services flop, some stick around. Either way I don’t think Facebook is the next Myspace.

Now it’s your turn.

Why the drop?  Have you left Facebook recently? I highly doubt that with our crowd