Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) dominance may be under threat as it has lost millions of users every month in its biggest markets, according to Independent data. The latest social networks like Instagram and Path are the new destination for those who are wishing to have new and fresh experience, reports Guardian.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), which enjoys the status of biggest social networking site of the world, lost 6 million users in the United States last month, a decline of 4 percent according to an analyst at SocialBakers. This number goes up to 9 million if we consider the past six months. In UK, Facebook lost 2 million monthly users in the last six months.
The attraction of Facebook is fading in countries like Canada, Spain, France, Germany and Japan. The bad news for Facebook is that these are the markets where Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) has expanded most in terms of users.
The social networking giant is all set to release its earnings performance for the past three months. However, there are analysts who are predicting that the Facebook has reached at its saturation point in markets like the United States, UK and other big European Countries. The revenue of the Facebook is estimated to increase by 36 percent for the quarter.
“The problem is that in the US and UK, most people who want to sign up for Facebook have already done it,” said new media specialist Ian Maude at Enders Analysis.
Instagram is a photo sharing Social networking site, which has been a tough competitor for Facebook. Instagram expanded its User base to 30 million in the past 18 months. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) took over Instagram last year.
Path is another social networking app in which a user can have only up to 150 friends. Path has been founded by the former Facebook employee Dave Morin and has gained 1 million users per week. The total subscriber base reached 9 million when 500,000 Venezuelans downloaded the app in a single weekend.
Earlier, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) also raised its concern when it announced that the time spent on Facebook pages is declining fast as the company is bidding to grow its presence in Smartphones and mobiles. The time spent on Smartphones has become two times of what it was a year back but that cannot in anyway compensate the declining minutes, which users are spending on the Desktop version.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) raised a similar issue in the recent Stock market filings when it announced that it is losing its popularity amongst the younger mass, which is inclined more towards other latest networking sites.
However, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is still going strong in South America. In Brazil, monthly visitors were up 6 percent in the last month to 70 million. In India, users grew by 4 percent to 64 million, which is still a tiny fraction of the total population, reflecting opportunities ahead.
UPDATED STORY [12:20 EST]: Facebook Is Not Shedding Users
