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We have good news for Om Malik. The new media guru is a little concerned about Facebook’s recent decline in traffic.
I just got the spread sheet and there seems to be a 9.3% decline in their unique visitors from 33.75 million in August 2007 to 30.6 million in September 2007…Why would that happen to both Facebook ahead of back-to-school season? It just doesn?t make any sense! Unless of course, the unthinkable is happening.
Here’s Malik’s chart…
Scary, huh?
But fear not Om! The same thing happened last year and Facebook went on to recover quite nicely.
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21 comments on “Facebook Traffic Declines – Abandon Ship or Deja Vu?”
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Dan Schawbel Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 11:05 am
I wonder what the logic is behind it though. Wouldn’t there be less of a transition period when people can start using facebook in high school?
Andy Beal Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 11:43 am
@Dan – I would imagine that many users just get busy prepping for “back to school”
webanalytics Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 11:59 am
People talk about the Sept. dips. They should be talking about the Aug. peaks. It’s a social community with highest activity among college-age users. The summer is for social young people.
Mike Mothner Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
I am also very confused by this decline in traffic right as school began. However, one possible explanation is that with all of the stress and activities associated with starting school, there might be a brief decline in overall internet use until students are once again settled into their routines. It will be interesting to see how quickly Facebook recovers from this slight decline.
ScottUA Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
You would think that numbers go UP as college/high school aged kids start to reconnect with friends they didn’t talk to all summer.
Scott Lawton (Blogcosm) Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Good catch! It’s nice to see someone provide some perspective.
Andy Beal Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
@ScottUA – they rebounded last year for that same reason.
Steven Bradley Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Scott I would think now that they’re first back in school they’d spend a little more time connecting in person. Once the routine for the year is established it’s back to connecting online.
August might also be a time of connecting to ask questions like what day are you heading back up to school or what are you bringing and what do I need to bring. I’d go all summer sometimes without talking to my roommate and then the week or two before going back to school we’d talk a few times to prepare for going back. This could be something like that.
Matt Siltala Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
All I know is my Facebook Flyer impressions AND clicks have dropped drastically! Its a sad decline to see happen to such an awesome social platform.
Harrison Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the uptime problems they have been experiencing with the launch of the new platform. Many days of traffic have been compromised due to platform scalability or slowdown issues.
Water Portal Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
something is wrong with this data, I have been using facebook for a year now, and back then there were few of my friends from the university on facebook, but now its like everyone moved to facebook this summer, now classes have started and I see students keep talking excited about facebook and how they discovered their classmates from their secondary school and other stuff.
Has Facebook peaked? : The Content Factory Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
[...] most hyped network is losing audience. So has FB caught the Icarus virus? Not according to Marketing Pilgrim, who say that the exact same dip happened last year – and Facebook duly [...]
Owen Cutajar Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 6:29 pm
It’s a bit like the housing market. You’ll get the occasional flutter when things appear to dip, but in the long run, the trend is always upwards …
duhmoment Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I don’t really agree with some of these arguments… what kids are so affected during back to school that they don’t have to sign on even once during an entire month?
I do think that back to school may have created bias in the comScore panel – perhaps more students using it from labs or new computers that are not being monitored??
Facebook Dip Seasonal « GigaOM Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 7:20 pm
[...] Andy from Marketing Pilgrim got this information before I did. Good work Andy! Share This | Sphere | Print Posts | Topic: Web [...]
Skype Cracks » Facebook traffic down? Says:
October 11th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
[...] Andy Beal says same thing happened last year and then the traffic went back up. October 11th 2007 Posted to [...]
Carlos Park Says:
October 12th, 2007 at 5:25 am
I’m just starting to think the spark is wearing off… to me it’s just a fad that will be gone sooner than later. If it’s true that Zuckerberg (spelling) had an offer of $2billion I would of taken it and start a new project.
thanks
Angela Duncan Says:
October 12th, 2007 at 9:51 am
Why are they comparing anything to photobucket or wikipedia? People use Flickr, not photobucket. And wikipedia is not a social networking site.
People are getting tired of terribly-designed myspace pages, which make them slow to load and unfriendly in general. They are actually turning to Facebook, because of its clean design. Some of them, anyway.
Tom Says:
October 12th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
The September dip has everything to do with students returning back to school. New classes are beginning and until they get into the routine of not going and not doing homework, traffic will take a slight dip.
[link removed]
Kristine Says:
October 12th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
You are forgetting that the majority of Facebook users are no longer students – they’re busy working adults who likely went on a summer vacation.
Also – Flickr is on the decline, Photobucket surpassed Flickr in # of visits starting in August.
Week In Review, News From The Internet » WebbyOnline.com Says:
October 19th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
[...] doo. On the short term, every website goes up AND DOWN. It is the trend that is important. And Marketing Pilgrim states that the same exact thing happened with Facebook this time last year and Facebook hasn’t [...]