Facebook sees 600,000 drop in UK users in December

Facebook sees 600,000 drop in UK users in December
UK gives Facebook the thumbs down

The UK could be falling out of love with Facebook if the latest figures are to be believed, suggesting a 600,000 strong exodus from the social network in December.

Although it's normal for there to be a dip in December usage, the UK was the only country of the top ten Facebooking territories to see a significant drop over Christmas.

That's according to Social Bakers' stats - and it's worth bearing in mind that figuring Facebook user data from outside of Facebook itself is a dark art and rarely completely accurate.

Rocky road

However, the downward trajectory in Facebooking Brits seems to be a theme across the last three months.

What does it all mean? Well, it could be that the stiff upper lip is back and we're choosing to ditch Facebook in favour of hand-written letters and photo albums.

More likely is that Facebook is approaching saturation point in the UK - the only way used to be up, now it could be that the only way is down. The USA, Facebook's biggest territory, also saw a negative change but it was down by less than half a per cent, as opposed to the UK's shedding of 1.86 per cent.

Either way, faux pas like Facebook's little Instagram terms mishap won't help those wavering about whether to ditch the 'Book. Luckily for Zuck and co, fear of missing out will keep a lot of us in place.

Perhaps today's little Facebook get together will tempt some of those 600,000 users back - after all, who can resist the promise of social search?

News Editor (UK)

Former UK News Editor for TechRadar, it was a perpetual challenge among the TechRadar staff to send Kate (Twitter, Google+) a link to something interesting on the internet that she hasn't already seen. As TechRadar's News Editor (UK), she was constantly on the hunt for top news and intriguing stories to feed your gadget lust. Kate now enjoys life as a renowned music critic – her words can be found in the i Paper, Guardian, GQ, Metro, Evening Standard and Time Out, and she's also the author of 'Amy Winehouse', a biography of the soul star.