Canada is another mature market for Facebook, says eMarketer

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. (Photo by Robert Scoble). When you are one of the few products on earth that measures its penetration against the global population, stories like these will begin to become more frequent.

Research firm eMarketer says Facebook’s growth in Canada is slowing, and will rise just 3.1% this year. That seemingly glum data point is offset by the fact that nearly half the Canadian population uses Facebook, and nearly 94% of all people who use a social network use Mr. Zuckerberg’s site.

eMarketer says the number of Canadians using Facebook at least once a month will total about 17.7 million this year, and hit approximately 19.9 million by 2017.

According to a report from Facebook, the social networking site had 1.1-billion users as of June, 2013 and increased its user base by 26% between 2011 and 2012.

eMarketer says the percentage of Canadians using Facebook will pass the 50% mark in 2015 and hit nearly 52% two years later.

A separate report from earlier this year suggested that Facebook’s social media dominance was waning in the face of rivals such as Instagram, and that the company’s most mature markets were actually beginning to see declines.

“The problem is that, in the US and UK, most people who want to sign up for Facebook have already done it,” said Ian Maude of the firm Enders Analysis. “There is a boredom factor where people like to try something new. Is Facebook going to go the way of Myspace? The risk is relatively small, but that is not to say it isn’t there.”

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