• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, June 13, 2011

Could Facebook being peaking? That, at least, is what new data from Inside Facebook's proprietary measurement service suggests.  In June, Facebook gained 11.8 million more members over May, following 13.9 million over April. In contrast, it grew by at least 20 million new users over the typical previous 12 months. (While there have been a few months that have registered lower growth numbers, they have not been back to back.)

"Most prominently, the United States lost nearly 6 million users, falling from 155.2 million at the start of May to 149.4 million at the end of it," Insider Facebook notes. "This is the first time the country has lost users in the past year."

"That's not a huge loss, and not the first time Facebook growth has appeared to waver," notes All Things D. "But no loss is good for a company close to going public, and definitely not if it becomes a trend." As Search Engine Land notes, "Even with dips in users and traffic from the USA and Canada, Facebook continued to grow globally with an overall increase of 11.8 users over May."

What's more, "Although these are headline-grabbing statistics, they are just a couple of months' data," the Financial Times writes. "It isn't yet a trend." "But big drops in the countries where Facebook first became popular can't be good news," writes Business Insider. "It suggests that there is a saturation point where people begin to burn out on the service."  According to CNet: "The purported loss of users in early-adopting countries may reflect frustration with the company's ongoing effort to allay security and privacy concerns."