[BRIEF NOTE] Toronto, second now in Facebook

[rfmcdonald]

From The Globe and Mail:

It may be the largest city in Canada and the centre of the universe to some, but when it comes to Facebook.com, Toronto is now just second best.

Some time last week, London leapfrogged the Big Smoke to steal the crown of the biggest Facebook geographic network.

According to statistics yesterday from the popular social networking destination, just under 810,000 Londoners have signed onto Facebook, while Toronto lags behind with 705,000 users. To put that into perspective, the population of London is about 7.5 million, compared with Toronto's estimated 2.6 million.

Facebook spokesman Matt Hicks said that the regional network numbers reflect only users who have decided to affiliate with that network.

"There are other users who might live in Toronto or London who decide not to join the local regional network. In some areas, users are more likely to join a work or school network or even no network at all," Mr. Hicks said.

But, also:

Although Torontonians may not be the darling of Facebook any more, they are a large part of the nationwide contingent that visits the site in droves. Canadians account for the largest user base outside of the United States, about 10 per cent of Facebook's 32 million active users. According to the Web measurement firm ComScore, 11.4 million Canadians logged onto Facebook last month, compared with only 343,000 in the same period last year.