After the ‘confusion’, Socialbakers puts Facebook country stats behind paywall

It seems that Socialbakers has had enough of the misleading headlines, panicked marketers and clarifying blog posts. In the hopes of keeping its country-based Facebook stats out of the hands of confused journalists, the social analytics company has hidden them behind a paywall.

Socialbakers, which has been in the news recently after its statistics were used to point out the decline of Facebook in a number of countries, announced via a short blog post that its previously free offering would now form part of its paid Market Insights package. The move makes the country-based estimates, which are designed to be a guideline for ad planning for social media marketers, less likely to be used by the media… unless they’re willing to pay for a US$200-500 monthly subscription.

“As a result of recent confusion we have moved the estimates (including monthly active users) to within our Market Insights paid product,” says Socialbakers. “This will make it more convenient for the clients with the appropriate package who are active in social marketing and advertising to access.”

Its previously free insights, which show estimates of the number of monthly active Facebook users in countries around the world over a one to six month period, are based on Facebook’s advertising tool, which Facebook has said is not “designed to be a source for tracking the overall growth of Facebook.” However, the statistics were used by journalists to justify claims that millions of Facebook users were ditching the platform in favour of rival social media sites.

The Guardian used Socialbakers statistics in January to claim that Facebook was reaching saturation point in the UK, saying it ‘lost’ more than half a million users in December 2012. Socialbakers CEO Jan Rezab stepped in to clarify the situation and point out the limitations of the data, but was forced to do so again last week after The Guardian published another article claiming Facebook had lost millions of users per month in the US and UK as a result of the increasing popularity of Instagram and Path. The analytics company’s statistics were also used by South African media to claim that the number of Facebook users in the country had dropped by more than a million in six months, which Socialbakers called a “massive misunderstanding” on the part of the journalists.

While country-based monthly active user figures may be off-limits to those without an account, Socialbakers says its other stats, including the ranks of the top Facebook pages per country and Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ insights, will still be available for free.