Perhaps most interesting in the news are the numbers. According to Facebook, 40 million people have tried out the new site, with “nearly 30 million” choosing to stick with it. These numbers are slightly more encouraging than earlier stats from third-party tracker Compete, that showed 40% of users who tried the new Facebook were opting to switch back to the old one.
The bigger story is that with more than 100 million users, it means that 60 million – according to Facebook’s own numbers – still haven’t even tried the new site heading into its rollout. That could spell a lot of confusion and a customer service nightmare as unsuspecting users are migrated to the new site and the option to switch back to the old one disappears.
As we’ve noted, groups protesting the new Facebook have been gaining momentum over the past few weeks, with more than 200,000 now signed up “People against the new Facebook system.” To counter, Facebook points out that the “Facebook Profile Previews” page has more than 140,000 fans.