Facebook is 14 years old!
It’s old by today’s teen standards who are often bewildered that their parents are still using it!
“Daddy, get a life,” they might say.
But when Facebook first came into use in 2004, it was an addiction.
Now it’s an aberration!
Research firm eMarketer predicted that two million people under the age of 25 have stopped using the social network in 2017.
Read: Mine your own business: Bitcoin itching to make a run for it
It gets worse.
eMarketer also expects the number of “Facebook-nevers” – young people who don’t use Facebook, and have never used Facebook – to increase.
Does Facebook need a Botox?
According to a recent study published by the Independent, younger consumers want novelty and exclusivity too and the search for the latest buzz in social media will continue to lead them away from Facebook.
“This is a logical consequence of the ‘ageing’ of Facebook as a proposition and a well-known environment, and the inevitable emergence of newer social platforms offering the buzz of new features and functions,” said Karin von Abrams, principal analyst at eMarketer.
Zero Hedge, a financial blog, quotes a 17-year-old at the Startup Societies Summit in August 2017, as saying that “Facebook is for old people.”
Experts agree
Zero Hedge said that one problem facing Facebook is that News feed contain more brand news than personal news about friends on the social platform.
“Facebook may be busy cooking up ways to attract the younger crowd, but they will inevitably fail at doing so. It is too late. .. The company probably suffers from an insurmountable branding problem among teens,” it said.
Must read: Mars is a slingshot away: No need for Musk, SpaceX or Tesla to get you there
Likewise, CNN Money revealed that Facebook has been struggling with how to get people to share more personal things on their website.
This is why Facebook has announced lately that it is changing the News Feed to prioritize posts from friends, family members and groups over posts from publishers and brands.
The Cheat Sheet, a news platform, reveals that young Americans do not trust Facebook.
Only 9% of those surveyed by Frank N. Magid Associates would describe facebook as either safe or trustworthy, it said.
It added that teens can get newer, more visual experiences elsewhere, often without the advertising and creeping suspicions about privacy.
Source: Statista
Who is beating Facebook
The independent revealed that “many teens already prioritize social networks such as Instagram and Snapchat over Facebook, and that trend is bound to increase as ever-younger consumers join social media.”
It said that Snapchat in particular could be set to gain from Facebook’s loss.
According to the Independent, around 43% of social media users will use Snapchat in 2018, which eMarketer said is more than twice its penetration rate from three years ago.
“Snapchat has also introduced a range of interactive features that have appealed to teen audiences, in turn driving up the user number,” it said.
Meanwhile, Zero Hedge reports that people are moving towards sharing more images, memes, and videos… things you can do on Instagram, Youtube, and Snapchat.
Check this: Massive 55% tax coming to the UAE
The cheat sheet says that Instagram is particularly popular among young users, who may regard it as the new Facebook for its visual format and its wide range of user communities.
“Social networks like Instagram enable users to explore a wide variety of content and communities with much more ease than they can change their identities or networks on Facebook, which enforces a strict “real-name” policy in all versions of its app except for the new, and separate, Rooms,” it said.
Kill Facebook
According to Statista, Snapchat’s user growth re-accelerated as its daily active user base grew 18% year-over-year to 187 million.
Statista revealed that 2,000 Americans were polled on feelings about a selection of different online platforms and the research uncovered a high level of negativity. “Take Twitter for example. 46% of respondents said they want to “kill it and let it die” while 43% want to “fuel it to keep it alive,” it said.
“Facebook has over two billion monthly active users and in the U.S. at least, 32% want to kill it while 64% want it kept alive,” it added.
The post Is this the end for Facebook? appeared first on AMEInfo.