Facebook records first drop in visitors

The number of Facebook users in Britain has fallen for the first time suggesting that the website’s success may have reached its peak.

The number of visitors to the social networking site fell by 5% last month. Over recent months, the website has become extremely popular, with over 2.5 million users in London alone.

The figures show the number of visitors to Facebook in Britain dropping from 8.9 million in December to 8.5 million in January. The figures come as consumer magazine Which? warned that Facebook users were leaving themselves vulnerable to identity theft by posting their information online.

For example, personal profiles that may include a date of birth, contact details or links to family and friends can often be seen by thousands of people in a Facebook network if users stick with the default privacy setting.

Which? says that fraudsters can use the internet to collect personal details which could then be used to trick people into revealing Pin numbers and other security information.

This information could then be used by fraudsters to apply for credit cards or loans in somebody else’s name.

However, according to Alex Burmaster of Neilsen Online, the internet research company, the website is still the most visited social networking site in the UK.

Mr Burmaster said other social networks including Bebo and MySpace are showing similar falls. Most of the leading social networks are less popular in the UK than they 12 months ago.

Luke Peters of gadget magazine T3 said there was a huge initial rush of people signing up to the site but that is definitely tailing off now. I think people are just fed up of being bombarded with spam emails and being bitten by their friends’ vampires or having dozens of requests every time they log on, added Mr Peters.

Mr Peters continued that most people do find it useful for keeping in touch, so I think we will see people just using it a lot less. Those people who logged on 10 times a day to check the site might now only be going once a week, concluded Mr Peters.

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