Dive Brief:

• Among the top 30 publishers on Facebook, referral traffic has taken a major hit this year, down 32% since January.
• The plunge in referrals from Facebook is even more dramatic among some its largest publishers, with the Huffington Post down more than 60%, BuzzFeed down almost 41% and Fox News down more than 48%.
• These results come at a time when Facebook has crossed the one billion daily user threshold as well as eight billion daily video views on the desktop and mobile versions of the social media platform combined.

Dive Insight:

Facebook’s user base continues to grow, but this year it’s driving significantly less referral traffic to publishers’ websites. Overall, from January to February referral traffic fell an average of 75%. Facebook and publishers alike aren’t speculating on the drop off in referral, but Facebook has actively encouraged publishers to upload their content into the Facebook platform, such as with Facebook’s Instant Articles, rather than post links to send users away from Facebook.

Not all publishers saw referral visit go down. Refinery29’s referrals increased more than 27% and Vice Media went up more than 8% between January and September.

Overall Facebook is moving forward and on an incline: in its most recent earnings call announced it passed the one billion daily user threshold, with a direct boost from mobile and video.