By Katie Davis W ell it is a good thing for Facebook Inc. that it owns Instagram. According to a recent industry forecast by eMarketer, the world’s largest social network will see a decline among younger users in the U.S. This is the first time the research company has predicted a fall in Facebook usage for any age group. eMarketer fore- casts 14.5 million people from the ages of 12 to 17 will use Facebook in 2017, which is a drop of 3.4 percent from the prior year. Where are these Facebook users going? Accord- ing to eMarketer, they are migrating to Snapchat and Insta- gram photo-sharing apps rather than Facebook. This is not all bad news for Facebook as it owns the Insta- gram apps, plus the Facebook platform continues to grow around the world, with more than 2 billion users this year. This forecast is promising news for Snap Inc. as it means their photo-sharing app Snapchat is gaining market. According to forecast, Snapchat will overtake Instagram and Facebook in the total teen (12 to 17) and young adult (18 to 24) ages for the first time in 2017, capturing almost 41 percent of US social network and are projected to capture the majority share of users by 2021.
Facebook is seeing that younger users are finding it less compelling, which is something that the company will need to address because it is an important demographic for the company and its growth strategy or for any company for that matter. Facebook needs to attract and retain younger users so they build a Facebook habit that will carry into their adult years, when they become prime customers for Facebook advertising. “Teens and tweens remaining on Facebook seem to be less engaged – logging in less frequently and spending less time on the platform,” according to Oscar Orozco, a fore- casting analyst at eMarketer. eMarketer also states in some cases these younger users are even skipping adopting Facebook entirely and going straight to the rival platforms. Facebook losing appeal among teens and young adults has been a major contributor to generally slowing growth for the platform. At the same time alternative social apps Snapchat and Ins- tagram are seeing rising and double- digit growth in the same youth demographic, this suggests that younger users are favoring newer and more visual communication plat- forms.
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SEPTEMBER 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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