Facebook recently revealed that in December 2011, it received 432 million visitors to its social network from mobile devices according to The Verge. This is a 76% increase from December 2010 and it is really significant. Not only does it show that Facebook has grown, but its access being through mobile devices shows that it has to pay serious attention to users in that section too. But Facebook humbly accepts that it did nothing on its own part to receive an increase in traffic from mobile devices, but it is due to its iPad app and purchase of Snaptu, which helped Facebook to be delievered as a mobile site to over 2,500 feature phones and other devices in April 2011, that has led to this influx.
Further statistics reveal that 58 million of these 432 million people have been on Facebook through other means. The loss is for Facebook, because the social network has its ads displayed on the main site and has not developed any version for its mobile ads. However, this reason why Facebook has decided to launch its mobile news feed ads very soon. Since Facebook has received a significant number of its visitors from its mobile site, it should better gear up to do something about the traffic that it gets from there and utilize it for its benefit.
According to Nielsen’s third quarter report for 2011, it confirmed that Facebook’s mobile app is the most engaging one than any other iOS or Android app due significantly to the users wanting to use Facebook up close than on a PC’s window. However, Facebook’s daily user growth is slowing down as Facebook is getting at higher market saturation. The reports indicate that Facebook’s daily active user growth is actually decreasing despite the popularity the social network has.
According to the report, the four most recent three-month periods, daily active user growth grew at a rate of 13.8 percent between December 2010 and March 2011, then 12.1 percent, then 9.6 percent, and in the most recent three month period, just 5.69 percent. There is single factor which could be pointed out to the slowness in growth. It is not that other social networks have taken over in the race of growth, but Facebook in itself has not increased.
The shift though is not to the mobile traffic, which actually less than predictable despite now having such a huge traffic influx of 432 million visitors at a rate of 17.55 percent between December 2010 and March 2011, then 12.85 percent for the following three months, then 15.69 percent, then 14.89 percent in the most recent three-month period. To keep it going, internet access all over the world has to increase now to show some positive change in numbers, especially in areas where there is little access.
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