According to a new survey by market research firm Edison Research, the user base of Facebook is gradually diminishing, especially the 12- 34 years old demographic is slowly moving away from the leading social media platform.
The survey collected data only from US-based Facebook users and found that an estimated 15 million fewer people use Facebook today than they did in 2017.
However, the data collected from the survey is inconclusive and misses several significant subjects, particularly the prime reason for leaving Facebook by the youngsters and millennials. Moreover, the survey only explored the broader US population through randomly made phone calls.
On the other hand, Facebook’s recent earnings report where they claim that the company has hit an all-time high global user base of 2.32 billion signifies something contradictory.
But yes, the drop is somewhat meaningful and tech experts link the decline in usage with the social network’s continued privacy issues. In fact, the president of Edison Research claims that this is the second year they have witnessed the numbers go down for Facebook.
Additionally, there has been speculation rising that Facebook is becoming more popular with older people whilst Snapchat and Instagram hold more appeal for the youngsters. This was confirmed by the team at Edison who said that they are constantly seeing a boost in Facebook usage by the 55 and above age group.
Today, Instagram boasts more than 1 billion users with 400 monthly users utilizing its Stories product – a feature copied from rival Snapchat. Facebook too tried to implement the Stories feature to its main app and Messenger service but the company did not see as much success as Instagram and Snapchat.
From the looks of it, Facebook’s biggest rival is its own product (read: Instagram) and the company will have to find some clever way to unite the users on both platforms.
Photo credit: Wachiwit | Getty Images
The survey collected data only from US-based Facebook users and found that an estimated 15 million fewer people use Facebook today than they did in 2017.
However, the data collected from the survey is inconclusive and misses several significant subjects, particularly the prime reason for leaving Facebook by the youngsters and millennials. Moreover, the survey only explored the broader US population through randomly made phone calls.
On the other hand, Facebook’s recent earnings report where they claim that the company has hit an all-time high global user base of 2.32 billion signifies something contradictory.
But yes, the drop is somewhat meaningful and tech experts link the decline in usage with the social network’s continued privacy issues. In fact, the president of Edison Research claims that this is the second year they have witnessed the numbers go down for Facebook.
Related: Facebook finds the idea of ‘regulating’ news feed unrequitedAnother interesting element that we stumbled upon indicates that the users might be leaving the flagship Facebook platform for its subsidiary Instagram. The photo-sharing platform is said to collect fewer user data and is considered simpler than the main Facebook service that is usually plagued by misleading news and advertisements.
Additionally, there has been speculation rising that Facebook is becoming more popular with older people whilst Snapchat and Instagram hold more appeal for the youngsters. This was confirmed by the team at Edison who said that they are constantly seeing a boost in Facebook usage by the 55 and above age group.
Today, Instagram boasts more than 1 billion users with 400 monthly users utilizing its Stories product – a feature copied from rival Snapchat. Facebook too tried to implement the Stories feature to its main app and Messenger service but the company did not see as much success as Instagram and Snapchat.
From the looks of it, Facebook’s biggest rival is its own product (read: Instagram) and the company will have to find some clever way to unite the users on both platforms.
Photo credit: Wachiwit | Getty Images
