Inside Facebook

10 Responses to “The Three Countries That Lost Facebook Users Last Month: China, Iceland and Cyprus”

1. Gadi Says:
   October 9th, 2009 at 10:19 pm

   The mystery of Cyprus – could it be due to the large number (by size of the population) of Cypriot students that leave in the fall to go study overseas?
   In the past Cyprus didn’t even have any universities, and all of its students went to study primarily in the US and Europe. Nowadays there are perhaps a handful of small universities in Cyprus, but with Cyprus now a member of the EU it’s even easier to study overseas. Maybe this accounts for the drop in Facebook users in Cyprus between summer and fall.

2. Flap Says:
   October 10th, 2009 at 1:49 am

   Maybe it’s simply the end of the Summer season that, along with students as explained in the comment above, brings also many international tourists in the island?

3. Eric Eldon Says:
   October 10th, 2009 at 8:01 am

   Gadi, that’s very interesting — could be what’s going on!

4. Eric Eldon Says:
   October 10th, 2009 at 10:12 am

   True, Flap. I wonder if tourism seasonal fluctuations show up in the data anywhere else? Maybe too small of an effect to be reflected in many countries?

5. Edin Shaba Says:
   October 10th, 2009 at 12:10 pm

   Check Montenegro’s numbers.Small country, a lot of turist in the summer,see if you can discern the same effect.

6. tvnewswatch Says:
   October 18th, 2009 at 7:25 pm

   The Great [or rather not-so-great] Firewall of China has not only affected the use of Facebook but also countless of other social networking sites and tools. Proxies and VPNs have also been targeted making leaping over the wall more difficult. Not all people, even Chinese people are tech savvy or in the know as to use the circumvention procedures anyway. Expats are particularly hard hit, but many are resourceful and after a copy of Freegate is obtained it is quickly circulated around expat communities. But many others remain in the dark, probably even from this news, since this site too is blocked in China.

7. הגיגית » ארכיון הבלוג » אנרכיסטים, תעזבו את הפייסבוק בשקט! Says:
   October 22nd, 2009 at 3:26 am

   [...] אתם מרוצים?! בדיקות מראות כי מספר המשתמשים הפעילים של פייסבוק בסין צנח מ-1,000,000 ל-14,000. אתם כמו התלמיד המופרע ביסודי [...]

8. Kirk Alcond Says:
   October 26th, 2009 at 12:27 am

   “Not all people, even Chinese people are tech savvy or in the know as to how to use the circumvention procedures anyway.”

   Eric Eldon, thanks-so-much for your excellent article. I am an American who has lived in Kunming, China, for the past four years, and it has been an incredible experience. At the outset, let me emphasize, that I love China! Here are some facts. The central government keeps fairly accurate records and there are around 76 million members in the Communist Party. That seems like a huge number, but within China’s total population of 1.3 Billion it is only 5.6 percent. In America, on the other hand, 13% of the workforce is employed by federal, state and local governments.

   Most of the Communist party members have families, and normal lives just like everyone else. The only reason there are so many members is because membership is required for government employees. Being a member is a bit like being a union member in the United States. In many industries in the US, if you want the job, you have to join the union. Most Communists are members in name only. Only a tiny percentage are active and involved. Even among the dedicated, there are only a tiny few with any power. These few are all very well educated, hard working and very visible. They have a lot of responsibility, but little authority. They, also, have the impossible job of trying to keep everybody happy.

   As little as thirty years ago China was isolated, destitute, and starving. Today, China is the fourth richest country in the world. Amazing! Yet, it is still, basically an agrarian society with over half of its population engaged in farming. Most of the farmers, still continue to laboriously hand plant rice, for the survival of their families.

   Socially, the young people are totally different from their conservative parents, who were children during those terrible times, and, the well educated young, are simply incredible. Less then one percent of the people here ever attend college. Yet, almost everyone, except for a few displaced by the “Cultural Revolution, of the 1950s through the 1970s, can read and understand at least ten thousand Chinese characters, the basic skill necessary for reading the newspaper.

   When I first arrived here I discovered that I couldn’t access Wikipedia, and other important, world-wide sources of information, that I needed to help my Chinese friends with their masters theses. I quickly learned about the government’s, “Golden Shield Project,” where it is estimated that roughly, 30,000 Chinese computer science graduates, are monitoring Internet traffic and blocking content that is deemed undesirable. They use the most advanced technology available. Since many of these, “Nerds,” have studied abroad, the equipment they use is from high tech countries like, Germany and the US. To get around this web censorship, I signed up for Witopia, a VPN, or Virtual Private Network. As you probably already know, VPNs encrypt everything so that all your computer information is transmitted in unintelligible code. Ever since acquiring Witopia, my American HP, laptop has functioned exactly the same as it did in America. Actually, better, because the encryption has eliminated all of the BOTS, Trojans and most of the spam that used to clog my computer.

   China is progressing so fast it’s like a runaway train, and no individual leader, or government is going to change it’s momentum. Just about everyone, has a cell phone. To give just one example; in 2007 the first Starbucks shop opened, here. Today, there are more Starbucks locations in China than in America. The government can’t eliminate the VPNs because all the international businesses and banks, rely on them for the security of their transactions. The young people in college can’t afford computers, yet, and VPNs. But, there are thousands of Internet cafes with 40 to 80 terminals, open 24 hours a day, here. QQ and Baidu, are big, and growing! It’s just a matter of time before things ease up, just wait and see.

9. Matthew Stinson Says:
   October 26th, 2009 at 2:37 am

   Kirk, I appreciate your attempt to add more perspective to this discussion, but your characterization of Chinese Communist Party membership and government service isn’t entirely accurate. Your arguments about the changing nature of Chinese society are spot-on and I hope everyone takes what you say into consideration. As for the rest …

   Party membership doesn’t equal government employment. Many people join the Party because it means more job access in the future, not because they have a dream of being a government employee. Yes, to be a white collar worker in the Chinese state you must be a party member, but that’s not true of minor employees within the state — the analogues to the American government workers you mentioned — nor is it true of many people working in State Owned Enterprises. All told, China’s public sector (SOEs plus government) provides around 40% of China’s jobs, a figure that has actually risen in the last year.

   Along these lines, it’s wrong to compare Party membership and union membership. Joining the Communist Party is much more like joining a fraternity or sorority in the US, especially since they make it easier to do so in university. Party membership is all about building connections and padding your resume. Yes, you must join if you want to be a white collar worker in the government, but you still have to pass several tests and training activities after that!

10. No friend: censorship depletes Facebook users in China - Megateam Blogs Says:
    October 27th, 2009 at 4:18 am

    [...] Source: Wall Street Journal and Inside Facebook [...]

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