Facebook suffered its first dip in UK users since July 2006, with a 5% drop between December and January. Rival MySpace also witnessed a 5% drop in the same period.

Facebook still counted 8.5 million unique users in the UK in January. MySpace still counted 5 million unique users, and Bebo came in third with 4.1 million – also dropping 2% month on month.

Is the explosive growth of social networks already beginning to level off? For the big players, perhaps.

Last year, Facebook's audience grew a whopping 712%, but this significantly slowed down in the last quarter, as its users only increased 9% between the end of October and January.

"Growth among the big players looks to be more about getting people from their competitors, not attracting new people to social networking," said Alex Burmaster, European internet analyst at Nielsen Online.

MySpace unique users dipped 9% year-on-year, and Bebo's audience dripped 8% since the end of October (despite a 53% year-on-year increase).

This is the first drop in Facebook's user numbers in the UK since Nielsen Online began measuring the site's statistics.

"However, real growth potential lies in the niche networks, those based on a particular lifestyle or interest, such as travel, music, wealth or business," said Burmaster.

Source: Guardian