The number of people using Facebook daily in North America dropped for the first time 11:19 AM ET Thu, 1 Feb 2018 | 00:48.
The number of people in the U.S. and Canada who check Facebook every day dropped between the third and fourth quarter of 2017, the first such quarterly drop in company history.
Facebook usage in North America has been largely flat for the last several years, leaving international growth to pick up the slack.
But the drop suggests that Facebook usage has reached a saturation point in its first and most lucrative market, and could foretell similar usage drops around the world.
Facebook claimed 184 million daily average users (DAUs) in the U.S. and Canada in Q4 2017, down from 185 million in Q3.
Those users accounted for $6.39 billion of Facebook's revenue in the fourth quarter, up from $5.03 billion in Q3.
On the company's earnings call, CFO David Wehner said that usage in this region would "fluctuate" based on m arket penetration. »