At a recent presentation with Radical for the Dublin Chamber of Commerce I was asked my opinion on reports of Facebook beginning to falter. This is a common headline grabbing story that surfaces every now and then. My answers was, yes, many younger folk are leaving Facebook for many reasons:
- The growing popularity of niche networks like SnapChat, WhatsApp and Instagram
- And the wrong type of growing popularity for Facebook by the older generations 😉
Of course I don’t mean this in a derogatory manner, I’m hardly a youngster myself! But I do see instances of younger demographics not embracing Facebook because that’s where their parents and grandparents are hanging out. Would you really express your true self in front of your parents at a young age? I’d be hanging out in private on SnapChat and WhatsApp too!
Facebook anticipated this potential youth exodus by buying Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. There was also an unsuccessful attempt to buy Snapchat in 2013 but that doesn’t seem to have harmed their global footprint as detailed in the infographic below.
Facebook’s dominance was also noted in the excellent presentation by Scott Galloway who noted Facebook now has 2.4 billion relationships outranking Catholics at 1.1 billion meaning they have more relationships than God! Very ‘Christopher Hitchens’ of him 🙂
If you have 15 minutes I’d very much recommend you enjoy Scott’s DLD’15 presentation below.