Facebook is closing in on the one billion-user-mark, but the social network's growth rate is slowing (along with its revenue) and reports suggest customer satisfaction levels are dropping compared to competitors.
As of the end of June, Facebook has had a total user base of 955 million (defined as monthly active users). The world's largest social network also boasts 543 million mobile users. In April, Facebook reported it had a total of 901 million monthly active users (and 850 million at the end of last year).
According to statistics released with Facebook's quarterly financial results, the social network is seeing 29% year-on-year growth of its monthly active users. Facebook has 552 million daily active users, and this figure is increasing by 32% year-on-year. Mobile is the biggest area of growth, noting a 67% year-on-year increase.
During the company earnings call, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said: “Our goal is to help every person stay connected and every product they use be a great social experience. That's why we're so focused on investing in our priorities of mobile, platform and social ads to help people have these experiences with their friends.”
The shift to mobile has long been touted as a major problem area for Facebook, as the social network is still struggling to establish an effective means of monetising its mobile services. During the earnings conference call, Facebook's chief financial officer, David Ebersman, said the increasing number of users switching to mobile is eating into Facebook's payments business. Ebersman also noted that users were viewing fewer ads.
Facebook's flattening user growth is also cited as one of the reasons for the poor performance of the company's shares. Ebersman said during the conference call: "We're disappointed about how the stock has traded. But the important thing for us is to stay focused on the fact that we're the same company now as we were before.”
Losing interest?
Bloomberg reported earlier this month that US Facebook users decreased 1.1% over the past six months. This was according to a report by Capstone Investments, which also claimed that of the 23 countries in which Facebook had at least 50% penetration, growth over the last three months was little changed or down (in 14 of those countries).
It was noted that this could be a worrying trend for Facebook, as it suggests a potential ceiling on user growth, where the user base begins dropping after the 50% penetration mark is reached in different countries.
Recently, the American Customer Satisfaction Index released its E-Business Report for 2012, which found that Facebook's customer satisfaction levels were behind those of its major rivals. Facebook was among the five lowest-scoring companies of the 230 companies measured in the report.
Google Plus scored 78%, with Pinterest on 69%, Twitter on 64%, LinkedIn on 63% and Facebook on 61%. It is, however, noted that the other networks' ratings are drawn from significantly smaller user bases than that of Facebook.
Google threat
A month ago, Google Plus celebrated the anniversary of its launch, and announced it had reached 250 million accounts, with 150 million monthly active users. The search giant said users were spending an average of 12 minutes on the platform daily.
Earlier this month, it was also reported that Google+ had seen a significant 43% increase in unique visitors in the US in the month of June - giving the new platform a bigger user base than LinkedIn in the US. While the reason for the spike in users is not known, during the month of June Google released updated Google+ mobile apps, which may have piqued interest in the service.
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck said early this year, when Google Plus reached the 90 million user mark: “The real target for Google+ is Facebook, and it is the battle of the billions. Facebook will have a billion registered users this year, and Google has more than a billion unique users of its search engine.
“Facebook's challenge is to turn a billion users into comparable revenue; Google's challenge is to turn a billion search users into a billion social networking users. In meeting those challenges, the two companies will set the agenda for where traffic goes on the Internet in the next couple of years.”
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