Facebook loses 2m UK users in six months
Facebook has lost two million monthly users in the last six months, research from Socialbakers has found, while in the US the service has lost 8.6 million users.
In the past month, the US, UK, France and Germany all saw the numbers of Facebook users drop, with a 1.4 million (4.55 per cent) drop in the UK, bringing the number of monthly active users to just over 31 million.
However, there was a slight growth last week, with the UK seeing and 0.10 per cent growth in users.
Despite the fall in monthly users, Socialbakers found that 60 per cent of questions put to brands on Facebook are now being answered, showing that companies are paying more attention to the channel.
The UK ranks seventh of a list of countries on Facebook, with the US, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Turkey all having more users on the social media site.
UPDATED: Socialbakers has said that the figures were “not primarily intended for journalists”, and that the statistics were purely meant as ad estimates for marketers.
He added that around of the UK's entire population is on Facebook, that about 15 per cent of people in the UK are under 13 years old therefore “not allowed” on Facebook, and that 16.5 per cent of people in the UK are older than 65 and typically not on Facebook.
This follows a similar issue earlier this month, when research found that a large amount of Justin Bieber fans were inactive, and Socialbakers insisted this did not mean the accounts were fakes.