Facebook on Wednesday reported a decline in daily use among younger teens
Facebook's popularity might be on the decline among some teenagers, the company signaled Wednesday.
For younger teenagers, Facebook has seen a decline in the number of daily users, the company reported during its third-quarter earnings call. Overall, usage among U.S. teens was stable between the second and third quarters, but the decrease in daily usage for some was noted early in the prepared remarks of Facebook's chief financial officer, David Ebersman.
It was one of the first times that the social network has identified a decrease in its teenage users. Youth engagement on Facebook is hard to measure because self-reported age data is usually unreliable for younger users, the company said. But, "we wanted to share [the figure] because we get a lot of questions about teens," Ebersman said.
Facebook didn't disclose the size of the decline or comment on it further.
With many rival services vying for younger users' attention, Facebook's ability to keep them on its site is an issue. One area of intense competition is messaging. Facebook operates its own standalone app just for messages, called Messenger, but services such as Snapchat, WhatsApp and Skype are also popular.
Part of the issue might be that everyone seems to be on Facebook now, and teens want their own place to digitally mingle. "Teens don't want to be on the same site as their parents," said Brian Blau, who's an industry analyst with Gartner and a parent of a teenager himself.
Also, a study released by Pew Research Center earlier this year found that the "drama" on Facebook might be driving more teens to one of Facebook's biggest rivals: Twitter.
Overall, on a monthly basis, Facebook grew its number of users to 1.19 billion during the quarter, an increase of 18 percent from last year. Total sales for the company, aided by mobile, were up 60 percent, to US$2.02 billion.
During the call, Facebook said it would continue to build products for people of all ages.
Zach Miners covers social networking, search and general technology news for IDG News Service. Follow Zach on Twitter at @zachminers. Zach's e-mail address is zach_miners@idg.com
If the FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) sector and their measured worth are the final argument for the successful 21st Century model, then they are beyond reproach. Fine-tuning masses of algorithms to reduce human touchpoints and deliver wild returns to investors—all with workforces infinitesimally small compared to the giants of the 20th Century—has been proven out.
Marketers have made strides this year in sustainability with the number of brands rallying behind the Not Business As Usual alliance for action against climate change being a sign of the times. While sustainability efforts have gained momentum this year, 2020 is shaping up to be the year brands are really held accountable for their work in this area.
As a Marketer, the ‘Scotty from Marketing’ meme troubles me.
In this bonus last episode of this new podcast series, BrandHook MD, Pip Stocks, talks with former ANZ group general manager of marketing, Louise Eyres, talks about the importance of thinking like a customer and using intuition to solve customer painpoints.
It's a pretty interesting article to read. I will learn more about this company later.
Dan Bullock
40 staff and 1000 contracts affected as foodora closes its Australian operations
If you think it can benefit both consumer and seller then it would be great
Simon Bird
Why Ford is counting on the Internet of Things to drive customer engagement
It's a good idea. Customers really should control their data. Now I understand why it's important.
Elvin Huntsberry
Salesforce CMO: Modern marketers have an obligation to give customers control of their data
Instagram changes algorithms every time you get used to them. It really pisses me off. What else pisses me off? The fact that Instagram d...
Nickwood
Instagram loses the like in Australia; industry reacts positively
I tried www.analisa.io to see my Instagram Insight
Dina Rahmawati
7 marketing technology predictions for 2016