Facebook Inc(NASDAQ:FB) << And the saga continues...

Some advertising-agency executives said that Facebook's slowing U.S. user growth rate isn't a concern as long as the company can figure out how to give marketers more opportunities to reach users.

"The story line is less about the users themselves," said Sarah Hofstetter, president of digital ad agency 360i, a unit of Dentsu Inc. "It's more about how they monetize their user base."

♲ Mark Traphagen @ Google+
End of Facebook's Neverending User Growth?

As +AJ Kohn brings out in his commentary below, the buried headline here is this post's insight about the radical changes in the Internet environment between Google's IPO and that of Facebook.

Сообщение из ленты +AJ Kohn:
Facebook's Sharp User Growth Appears Over

In some ways, the slowdown is to be expected. Facebook has already grabbed 71% of all 221 million U.S. Internet users, according to comScore. At the same time, people already are on Facebook longer than any other site. The more than six hours a month that people spend on the social network exceeds the over four hours a month they spend on all Google sites including YouTube, and the 3½ hours they spend on Yahoo sites, comScore said.

Morningstar analyst Rick Summer said comparing Facebook's growth rates to Google's post-IPO might not be an apt analogy given that Google went public at an earlier stage of the Internet's development. "Google had the advantage of increases in ad pricing, increases in the number of Internet users and stealing market share from other Web properties," he said.

The first part (the slowdown in growth) is expected given the market penetration. But this is the first time I've seen a mainstream publication understand that the post-IPO prospects for Facebook are wildly different than they were for Google because of where we are in the innovation curve for Internet usage.

I'm not saying Facebook can't make it work, but they do not have the macro-level tailwind that Google had post-IPO.

#facebook #google #trends

Facebook's Sharp User Growth Appears Over

Facebook Inc. went public last month on its prospects for growth. But in some areas, the social network's growth rates are already maturing. The website's user growth rate in the U.S. is slowing drama...