No sign of Facebook fatigue ahead of $5 billion flotation

FACEBOOK users are showing no sign of tiring of the social network site, a survey has revealed.

The Pew Research Center report, based on a phone survey, logs and data from November 2010, sheds light on Facebook’s possible long-term popularity as the company, founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, heads for a $5 billion (£3.2bn) initial public offering on the stock market.

Ahead of the IPO, one concern about Facebook has been that users might simply lose interest, a phenomenon dubbed “Facebook fatigue”.

But the Pew research suggests such worries may be unfounded.

The longer people have used Facebook, the more frequently they hit the “like” button, commented on friends’ content, posted status updates and tagged their friends in photos, the report showed.

It also concluded having more Facebook friends kept users more involved with the site.

“The more Facebook friends users have, the more they perform every activity that we explored: friending, liking, private messages, commenting, posting, photo tagging, joining groups and poking,” the report said.

“This examination of people’s activities in a very new realm affirms one of the oldest truths about the value of friendship,” added Lee Rainie, head of Pew’s Internet project. “Those who are socially active have a better shot at getting the help they need.”

Facebook claims it now has 845 million active users.