Report: Facebook’s popularity among teens decreasing

According to projections made by eMarketer, it appears that the world’s most popular social media platform is becoming less and less popular among teenage users. And while it is true that Facebook still has some hold among adolescents (mainly because of the universal appeal of Instagram, a brand it also owns), there seems to be some indication that Snapchat is sucking away some of Facebook’s user base.

For this year, eMarketer is is projecting that less than fifty percent of web users with ages 12 years old to 17 years old and are based in the United States will be accessing Facebook at least once on a monthly basis. The research firm also estimates that 2018 will see Facebook lose a couple of million users who are 24 years old or younger. Meanwhile, eMarketer’s data indicates that Instagram will be gaining 1.6 million users this year who are 24 years and younger, while Snapchat will likely finish 2018 with 1.9 million user additions in the same age category.

Still, it should be noted that Facebook remains the number one social media platform in America, when taking into account all age groups. The company should end the year with a total of 169.5 million users in the United States. eMarketer, however, is quick to point out that Facebook’s new users tend to belong to older age categories, not from the teenager and young adult demographics.

According to eMarketer’s projections, second overall is Instagram, whose user base is expected to improve by 13.1 percent in order to hit 104.7 million in 2018. As for Snapchat, it is predicted to reach 86.5 million at the end of the year, posting a growth of 9.3 percent. With Snapchat’s recent efforts to make its interface more user friendly to everybody, the brand could gain more new users from older age categories in 2018.

Numerous reports have suggested that Snapchat is generating some momentum from teenage users. Back in April of last year, Piper Jaffray had released a report stating that Snapchat has surpassed Instagram both in terms of usage on a monthly basis and as the favorite social media platform among teenagers based in the United States. 

But as mentioned earlier, older people are beginning to use Snapchat, and there is some discussion with regards to how this might affect teenage Snapchat users. After all, kids might not find it cool hanging out in the same social media platform their parents (or grandparents) are also frequenting.