Cypriots beat Europeans on Facebook

Cypriots use Facebook more than any other nationality in Europe, even as people are starting to turn their backs on the popular social media app in the wake of fake news.

According to a study by jodi.graphics, Cyprus is at the top of the list with 88% of internet users in Cyprus using Facebook as of December 2017, the highest percentage in all of Europe. The figure is up compared to 75.9% from June 2017.

Bulgaria comes second with 78.3% and Portugal third with 78.1%, while Great Britain, Turkey, and Romania also made it to the Top 10, along with Gibraltar, Iceland, Montenegro, and Albania scored in the range of 70% to 75%.

Greece comes in 16th place with 66.4% of its internet users going on Facebook, which translates to roughly 5 million Facebookers out of 7.5 million internet users in that country.

The data, collected regularly by internetworldstats.com, also revealed that Europe has the the second largest number of internet users, which is almost 705 million users or 85.2%, following the United States which is number one with 95%.

The fewest European Facebook users can be found in eastern Europe, with Russia leading the pack with just 11%, if one excludes the Vatican with 4.2% which is dead last.

Facebook usage could be registering so low in Russia for a number of reasons, primarily due to the VK social media app, the Russian equivalent of Facebook, also popular in other countries with few internet users on Facebook, such as Belarus with 12.5%, Moldova with 23.6%, and Ukraine with 24%.

The biggest market of social media, China, is already competing with its own apps that do everything Facebook can do, however efforts to allow Facebook to penetrate the Chinese market have been failing. And the effort could be scrapped altogether given the major setback following the recent security breaches, fake news, and political scandals linked to the election of US President Donald Trump, the Brexit referendum, and other high profile activities.

The study also notes that many users are starting to turn their backs on Facebook.