Facebook continued strong growth in the U.S. in August after a lull earlier this summer, adding five million new monthly active users in its home country last month. That's more than the three million added a month earlier and a strong rebound from the meager 328,000 U.S. members who joined Facebook in June. The surge in August is attributable at least in part to a seasonal upswing as high school and college students head back to school and sign up on Facebook for the first time or reconnect with friends via the service after cutting back activity during the summer. Inside Facebook estimates Facebook penetration has reached 43.8% after some observers predicted U.S. growth would level off at 40%.
But the 3.9% growth rate in the U.S. doesn't compare to that of other countries where the base of users is still much smaller than the 134 million here. Emerging markets like Mexico, India and Brazil all showed double-digit growth in Facebook membership last month, at 12.3%, 14.3% and 13.4%, respectively. Mexico and India each added 1.7 million new Facebook users in August.
"The two countries are also similarly experiencing booms of youthful, Internet-savvy people. Mexico is on the verge of becoming North America's second-largest market, while India has huge potential as more and more of its residents gain access to the internet," according to an Inside Facebook post.
With 13.2 million users in India, Facebook has only signed up about 1% of the population to date, so there's still a huge amount of room to expand there -- which is probably why the company opened an office in Hyderabad, India in June with plans to hire up to 500 people.
Last month comScore reported that Facebook had surged past rival Orkut in July to become the top social networking site in terms of monthly traffic, at 20.8 million to 19.8 million. That reflects a 179% gain in the last year. But the bigger opportunity for Facebook in India at present lies with wireless subscribers, who outnumber Internet users by more than 600 million to 80 million.
In Brazil -- Orkut's other stronghold -- Facebook is also making strides, climbing from 5.3 million to 6 million users in the last month, reflecting 3.2% penetration. In terms of social networking overall, Brazil is one of the fastest-growing markets worldwide, with traffic to social sites growing 47% in the last year to 35 million a month, according to comScore.
For Facebook, about 70% of its 500 million users still come from outside the U.S. But the company generates the majority of its ad revenue from the U.S.
COMMENTARY: Looks like Facebook has just about tapped out, and that in order for Facebook membership to grow, it must seek members internationally. India, China, Russia, Brazil and Mexico are my top five markets that will contribute to that growth. Will these markets be sufficient for Facebook to grow to one billion members? That is the big unknown.
Courtesy of an article dated September 2, 2010 appearing in MediaPost Publications Online Media Daily
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