Fatigue driving users off Facebook

Tired of social networking? Logging off Facebook? You're probably not the only one. Fearing for their privacy or perhaps just bored with using the site, 100,000 Britons are said to have deactivated their accounts last month. And Facebook fatigue seems to be catching. Some 6 million logged off for good in the US too, figures show. Worldwide, the rate of growth has slowed for a second month in a row and as it aims to reach its goal of one billion active users, Facebook is having to rely on developing countries to boost its numbers. The figures suggest that there could be a ‘natural limit' for Facebook's saturation. There is even speculation on blogs that, as is feared for its failing rival MySpace, the website could one day sputter into oblivion. Earlier this year, executives announced that the number of Facebook accounts held in the UK had reached 30 million, accounting for about half the population. The milestone was an increase of 4 million from last July and represented the highest saturation of any country in Europe. But times change and last month more than 100,000 in the UK stopped using the website, figures show. In the US user numbers dropped from 155.2 million to 149.4 million throughout May. In Canada there was also a fall of about 1.5 million users, while in Russia and Norway numbers also fell by more than 100,000 users. It's not all bad news for the site. Worldwide, Face-book is still expanding and has around 600 million users, thanks to strong growth in countries such as Mexico and Brazil. According to Eric Eldon, of the website Inside Facebook, which obtained the figures through analysis of the company's advertising tools, there is a point at which the site can no longer grow, once it has established itself in a country. Social network Facebook is likely to go public in the first quarter of next year with a valuation of over $100 billion (Dh367 billion), the CNBC business news network reported on Monday. Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly said he is in no hurry to take the social network public but CNBC said the company may be forced to do so by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations. CNBC said Facebook's decision to conduct an initial public offering could be triggered by an SEC requirement that companies with more than 500 private investors must disclose financial information. From / Gulf News