How does the biggest social networking site kick off a new year? By adding 5 million new users.
This is what Facebook did in January, according to Inside Facebook. According to the company’s findings, Facebook ended January with 108 million U.S. users, up from 103 million in December.
Men between the ages of 26 and 34 made up the largest gain, with more than 600,000 of users in this group joining the popular social networking site in January. Women between 18 and 25 followed behind with 581,000 new members in the first month of 2010.
As has been reported in earlier months, older age groups are still the fastest-growing Facebook populations. In January, men between 45 and 54 grew 10.5 percent, or by 472,000 new members. Women between 55 and 65 followed close behind with 9.4 percent growth, or 391,000 new members to the social network.
Eric Eldon at Inside Facebook conjectures at why this happened in January.
“It’s possible that lots of Facebook-using younger people went home for the holidays and made their parents sign up. Facebook saw massive traffic spikes around Christmas and New Year’s, according to Hitwise, and we wonder if this was when thousands of Facebook evangelists fired up the computer — or laptop, or netbook, or iPhone — and taught their relatives how Facebook works.”
Still, older age groups are relatively small on Facebook. Users between 45 and 54 make up 12 percent of the social network’s population, while just 7 percent are between 55 and 65.
About 52 percent of all users of Facebook are between 18 and 34, while 56 percent of all users are women.
According to comScore, Facebook finished 2009 with 111.9 million users, more than doubling its user base of 54.6 million users in December 2008.
Though the social network is thriving, it has encountered many lawsuits along the way. Recent cases involve click fraud and copyright infringement over a third-party application.
Sources:
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=121679
http://blog.comscore.com/2010/01/strong_year_for_facebook.html
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/02/01/facebooks-january-us-traffic-by-age-and-sex-growth-led-by-young-women-grown-men-and-their-parents/#comments
http://blog.ericgoldman.org/archives/2010/01/facebook_user_a_1.htm
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=121682
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