More than half of Facebook users may quit site, poll finds • Hacker News Board

Re: More than half of Facebook users may quit site, poll finds

#11

Post by evansolomon » Fri, May 21, 2010, 6:00 PM UTC

gyardley wrote: post #10

Obvious the poll is silly. However, bad publicity can still sour people on the company and reduce overall Facebook usage. Quantcast isn't perfect by any means, but it's directional, and according to it, United States users and visits to Facebook have been flat since the start of February: http://www.quantcast.com/facebook.com When did the current wave of Facebook privacy hoopla start?

One more data point, ComScore shows Facebook growing from about 117m to 122m in the US since February.

Re: More than half of Facebook users may quit site, poll finds

#12

Post by smokinn » Fri, May 21, 2010, 6:06 PM UTC

dariusmonsef wrote: post #9

And 100% of people that don't read tech blogs have no idea there is a Facebook privacy issue and will continue on using FB just as they are.

Considering that facebook privacy issues made the front cover of Time magazine I figure 100% might be a tad high.

Re: More than half of Facebook users may quit site, poll finds

#13

Post by 27182818284 » Fri, May 21, 2010, 6:12 PM UTC

If they lost 50% they would have 200M users. That sets Facebook back to April 2009.

Re: More than half of Facebook users may quit site, poll finds

#14

Post by tjic » Fri, May 21, 2010, 6:15 PM UTC

27182818284 wrote: post #13

If they lost 50% they would have 200M users. That sets Facebook back to April 2009.

Awesome analysis.

Re: More than half of Facebook users may quit site, poll finds

#15

Post by whopa » Fri, May 21, 2010, 6:23 PM UTC

tjic wrote: post #14

27182818284 wrote: post #13

If they lost 50% they would have 200M users. That sets Facebook back to April 2009.

Awesome analysis.

They also raised $200M in May 2009.

Re: More than half of Facebook users may quit site, poll finds

#16

Post by logic » Fri, May 21, 2010, 6:24 PM UTC

gyardley wrote: post #10

Obvious the poll is silly. However, bad publicity can still sour people on the company and reduce overall Facebook usage. Quantcast isn't perfect by any means, but it's directional, and according to it, United States users and visits to Facebook have been flat since the start of February: http://www.quantcast.com/facebook.com When did the current wave of Facebook privacy hoopla start?

Compare that graph to Google, though:

http://www.quantcast.com/google.com

Even YouTube shows a similar curve:

http://www.quantcast.com/youtube.com

I suspect this is a reflection of Quantcast's measurements, rather than something specific to Facebook.

More "top sites" data from Quant: http://www.quantcast.com/top-sites-1

Re: More than half of Facebook users may quit site, poll finds

#17

Post by mixmax » Fri, May 21, 2010, 6:28 PM UTC

This poll is so stock-full of mistakes and biases that it's practically worthless. If you bother to click through to the source it even says at the bottom of the blogpost they got it from: "Please bear in mind that this poll is not scientific and is provided for information purposes only."

And I'm not even mentioning that computerworld finds an online poll written up on a blog credible source material.

Shame on them.

Re: More than half of Facebook users may quit site, poll finds

#18

Post by nfnaaron » Fri, May 21, 2010, 6:31 PM UTC

ja27 wrote: post #6

Where will they go? I don't see a potential successor standing by, despite 4 years of half the people I know working on either "the next Facebook" or "Facebook for X niche."

They don't need to "go" anywhere. They can just quit.

I deleted today. I'm not looking for a replacement, I already have email. My email privacy settings haven't changed in twenty years. Oh, wait -- I don't have privacy settings. It's just "private."