Facebook will stay for sometime, finds new study

A new study has dispelled the finding of a widely publicized Princeton study that stated that Facebook would lose 20 percent of its users between 2015 and 2017.

The latest study from Carnegie Mellon University said Facebook that just turned 10, will stay here for some time, CNET reported.

Bruno Ribeiro, a postdoctoral researcher in Carnegie Mellon's computer science department, came to this result by applying a model that he developed using data from Web traffic data company Alexa to six years worth of user data from 22 membership-based sites like LinkedIn, Meetup.com, and Facebook.

This study, unlike the Princeton study that looked primarily at Google searches for "Facebook," looked at sites that have grown, as well as those that suffered attrition, and analyzed various user trends like how likely active members were to become inactive, what role members played in getting others to join the site, and what role advertising played in increasing the site's traffic.

He found that Facebook, along with LinkedIn, Huffington Post, and the Ashley Madison dating site would continue to thrive, while Flixter, OccupyWallStreet, and Tea Party Patriots won't.