Are we falling out of love with Facebook? This morning, Meta, the new name for the Facebook group, reported Q4 and full year results for 2021. Their statement included news that for the first time in its 18 year history, there’s been a fall in Facebook’s daily active users. Shares in Meta slumped by 20% on the news.
Dominic Hiatt, founder of the small business marketing platform, Newspage: “Facebook increasingly has a legacy feel to it. Even Instagram feels sepia-tinted compared to TikTok. Facebook is still the default social setting for people in their thirties, forties and fifties plus, but simply isn’t on the radar of younger people. Kids these days are on Instagram at best, but Snapchat and TikTok are where it’s happening. Facebook will also be suffering social fallout from the various controversies it’s been involved in. As for Facebook ads, companies are spending their money on organic, genuine content to cut through. Ads are increasingly seen as crude and ineffective.”
Digital marketer, Marianna Boguslavsky: “Unless Facebook pivots or focuses on some smart acquisitions to attract a younger audience, there will be more and more users asking themselves, ‘Should I delete it?’ It just no longer wields the extraordinary power it once did.”
Michael Oszmann, founder of online marketplace, Buy Britain: “I’m surprised it has taken this long. You only have to go on the train and look around at people’s phones to see that the world has moved onto vertical videos and highly visual platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels. ‘Core’ Facebook has become a victim of its own success. It’s now so flooded with ads and strange comments from your distant great auntie that most people don’t engage with it like they used to. Luckily for Zuck, he also owns Instagram so I’m sure he’ll be ok.”
