Earlier this week, Facebook’s analytics revealed that the social networking site currently has a user base of 27,545,920 users in the United Kingdom. This means that currently 44% of the UK’s estimated population is on Facebook, an impressive achievement for any company.
Currently Sports New Media has around 5 million followers in the UK across all of its fan pages on Facebook. This means that Sports New Media is in direct and frequent contact with 18% of Facebook’s exceptional user base in the United Kingdom, or alternatively 8% of the current estimated United Kingdom population.
Furthermore, Sports New Media is continually growing at a steady rate not just in the United Kingdom but worldwide. In 2010, Sports New Media’s fan base experienced notable rates of growth at around 6%, and this rate looks stable as we enter 2011.
Despite reports showing a phenomenal growth of 8.9% in the UK in May 2010, Facebook is no longer able to sustain such a rate. That monthly gain of 2.2 million active users could be a thing of the past, as shown with further studies on the site’s growth.
As the year went on Facebook started to experience a drop, falling to a low of around 1.8% new users in the UK in July (Utalkmarketing).
Mark Zuckerberg commented on this down turn in growth, stating:
We saw our exponential growth rate continue for a very long period of time, and it still does at a super-linear rate, though not quite 3 per cent a week any more.”
However, when you look at Facebook in a broader sense, the social network is still continually expanding and despite a minor decrease in growth rates in specific areas around the world, Facebook is continuing to expand and in some cases there growth rates have drastically increased.
This has come about due to Facebook replacing their cookie-cutter approach to international expansion, with the alternative “do some specific things in specific countries” as they look to convert countries where they are not the leading Social network.
This change is expansion has come about as Mark Zuckerberg strives to reach his goal of being the company that brings [social networking] to 1 billion people.
