Facebook responds to falling US and UK users stats

Facebook has spoken out on the subject of apparent falling user stats, dismissing them as inaccurate.

Yesterday we reported on the stats which suggested that around 6 million US users had stopped using Facebook, while a fall of 100,000 UK users was also indicated.

A spokesperson for the social network told TechRadar, "From time to time, we see stories about Facebook losing users in some regions.

"Some of these reports use data extracted from our advertising tool, which provides broad estimates on the reach of Facebook ads and isn't designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook."

Still growing

"We are very pleased with our growth and with the way people are engaged with Facebook. More than 50 per cent of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day," it concluded.

Still, Facebook hasn't actually proven that its user base in the UK and US remains as robust as ever; we've got a call in to ComScore, a reputable traffic tracker, about that.

But it did point out that these stories do tend to pop up at about the same time each year – that is, early summer.

There's a definite case to suggest that any drop-off in Facebook use reported by advertising tools could well be down to the improving weather when people would rather be out and about than feverishly F5-ing their Facebook feeds.

The spurious stats sparked some heated debate between Twitter and Facebook advocates on TechRadar's respective pages; it seems that the Tweeters don't like Facebook much, while Zuckerberg's Army aren't all that fond of Twitter. Who knew?