Teens Quitting Facebook in droves - Here's why:

[Whitey]

A European study out today of teens ages 16 to 18 says they are leaving for other digital haunts such as Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Facebook is not just on the slide – it is basically dead and buried…Mostly they feel embarrassed to even be associated with it. Where once parents worried about their children joining Facebook, the children now say it is their family that insists they stay there to post about their lives. [siliconbeat.com...]
Mom and Pop said.......... ?

[dethfire]

"it is basically dead and buried" lol right........

[lucy24]

Oh, wait, I know this one. "There are three ways to get something done: Do it yourself; Pay someone to do it; Forbid your child to do it." Presumably works in reverse too.

This is one of those articles where they interviewed two people and invented a trend, right?

[Rugles]

I don't believe it. My teen is all over FB and so are all her peers.

[tangor]

Skeptics of Facebook’s business model have long pointed to anecdotal evidence that the social network is losing its luster with teens as evidence that the firm will ultimately be unable to justify its $140 billion valuation. Indeed, even Facebook itself admitted last fall that it had lost younger users. “”We did see a decrease in [teenage] daily users [during the quarter], especially younger teens,” Facebook chief financial officer David Ebersman said during a call with analysts.

But it’s always been difficult to gauge exactly what the magnitude of this lost interest has been. On Wednesday, the digital consultancy iStrategy Labs released a study that draws from Facebook’s Social Advertising platform to glean exactly how many young users have left the social network in recent years. The resulting estimates are pretty staggering. According to iStrategy, Facebook has 4,292,080 fewer high-school aged users and 6,948,848 college-aged users than it did in 2011. Check out the data below:

[business.time.com...]
And what followed was a series of charts comparing FB users Jan 2011 and Jan 2014... there are some STRONG loses in the "youth" categories.

[lucy24]

According to iStrategy, Facebook has 4,292,080 fewer high-school aged users and 6,948,848 college-aged users than it did in 2011.

Does that mean it's losing existing users or only failing to acquire new ones in the specified age brackets?

Someone who was a high-school-aged user in 2009/2010 is by definition no longer a high-school-aged user. They may or may not be a user at all.

[GoNC]

This is a trend that has happened countless times in the past, and will continue happening for years to come.

Teens go somewhere. Parents and grandparents follow. Teens leave. Parents and grandparents follow.

I can name 2 real-world examples: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Daytona Beach, Florida (I've lived in both, so I speak from experience). 20 years ago, both cities were THE place to be for teens. Now, they're retirement communities that roll up the sidewalks at 8:30pm.

Friendster, MySpace, they've all had the same fate, and there's no reason to think that Facebook has greater longevity.

[aegir]

Friendster, MySpace, they've all had the same fate, and there's no reason to think that Facebook has greater longevity.

I disagree. Myspace was never embraced by adults the way Facebook is.

[GoNC]

According to this, it was:

[adage.com...]

MySpace had a much higher percentage of 18-20 year olds (debatably adults), and a slightly higher percentage of 45-54 year olds. 25-29 was virtually the same between MySpace and FB.

An excellent point was made in the comments of that article, though. I read a report awhile back that said more than 33% of the accounts on FB are fake (the report referred to duplicate accounts for games, but I think the % is higher due to scammers), so you can't really trust the demographic data on FB.

[tangor]

Does that mean it's losing existing users or only failing to acquire new ones in the specified age brackets?

A difference. The teen of 2011 is not a teen in 2014... but during that time any new signups in the teen category...

FB is LOSING new teen signups. We don't know if the existing teens have fled (though I suspect they have). What FB is losing is the teen market where they hoped their targeted ads would have value. Hence, the drop in FB valuation on the market.

[londrum]

I was watching NFL the other day and one player mocked RGIII for posting something on his facebook page. He said something like "who uses facebook anymore?"

[Whitey]

hmmm - FWIW I sent my 17 year old niece a birthday wish messaged via FB , only to be told that she doesn't use it that much now, and prefers Whatsapp [whatsapp.com...] for messaging.

I guess the fastest way to be uncool is having older folks snooping around your FB account :)

[lalit_burma]

Whatsapp is hit and taking over facebook because -

# easy to use
# many other options and
# Most important - its peer to peer (so if you want to share something with someone than only they will be able to see it)
# No more confused personal setting.
# No extra or unwanted stuff loaded on your account.

[topr8]

... for facebook to be mega successful longterm, i would have thought it needs to transform from being a cool place to hang out to a mundane (but seemingly necessary) requirement for a normal life, just like turning on the tv or listening to the radio.

so it is already on target i should think.

[GoNC]

I would say, yes and no. It was on target before going public. Now, the focus is in making more of a profit, so they have to keep killing the things that make less money.

The problem is that they're not realizing that those little things just keep chipping away at the core demographic.

IMO, no company that targets kids will ever have mega successful longevity, for the reason I explained on 1/16/14 @ 9:23am. Parents spend the money, so they're relying on kids to bring the parents; but kids won't hang out where their parents hang out for long.

[tangor]

Parents spend the money, so they're relying on kids to bring the parents; but kids won't hang out where their parents hang out for long.

Until that time when "kids" are actual producers of wealth, not consumers, no teen based business will be more than a flash in the pan.

And since so many nations have prohibitions against child labor these days, that's not likely to happen.

[Rugles]

Well, now my teen daughter says she knows kids who are closing their FB accounts. They are moving to snapchat and instagram.

I see the WSJ is on the story this morn.

[blogs.wsj.com...]

[bill]

They don't know who owns Instagram?

[Samizdata]

They don't know who owns Instagram?

They don't care who owns it.

Teens are not boycotting Facebook on ethical grounds.

They are bored with it.

...

[julinho]

Facebook is an 'infectious disease' and will lose 80% of users by 2017, say researchers:
[independent.co.uk ]

[fom2001uk]

Man lands on moon.

[zeus]

It has to do with Trend, to many ads, Privacy issues which the people around the world are more aware of because of Google, Facebook,...just see snapchat.

I said this 1-2 years ago that the trend will go to a perfect privacy site, No sharing to third parties,... My new site dont use anything from the users, No adsense so no third party can spy on the users, also the option of blocking Google SE from spidering there profile.

[incrediBILL]

Find Facebook in your local cemetery next to desktop and laptop computers, landline phones, and MS Windows.

[Samizdata]

Find Facebook in your local cemetery next to desktop and laptop computers, landline phones, and MS Windows.

This thread is about the behaviour of the younger generation.

Almost none of the young people I know use the comparison products you mention.

They use mobile phones and tablets running IOS or Android.

...

[GoNC]

It has to do with Trend, to many ads, Privacy issues which the people around the world are more aware of because of Google, Facebook,...just see snapchat.

I mentioned this before, but I think the problem is deeper than that, and a problem we've seen numerous times (and will see again).

Cycle 1: You have a high traffic site that targets teens, who don't really spend money. They'll buy small-ticket impulse items, but they don't make big purchases. The high traffic numbers trick businesses in to advertising, but they don't see a return, so they stop advertising.

Cycle 2: The parents and grandparents follow the kids, because... well, they always do. Now, you have a short period where the ads meet the right demographic. But, so many advertisers have already tried it and had a bad experience, so they have left without trying the new demographic.

Cycle 3: Because the parents and grandparents are there, the kids leave, because... well, they always do. Traffic goes down, and even though you have a better demographic for advertisers than ever before, you make less money because your numbers were falsely inflated, and now they're falsely deflated.

(Facebook was especially bad at the false number inflation, because they encouraged multiple accounts, 3rd party apps, and scammer accounts.)

Cycle 4: Finally, the parents and grandparents leave, because they're following the kids to the next big thing. And the cycle continues.

Facebook is currently in the 3rd cycle... kids have left, and numbers look bad because they were falsely inflated before.

Businesses will continue to follow this cycle, because with a lot of money invested, they can make a lot of money in a short period. Big fads are always big moneymakers (pet rock, anyone?). But no one should ever think it's a long term business plan; from a business perspective, they need to make their money, then get out.

[Whitey]

Almost none of the young people I know use the comparison products you mention.

Exactly. And they move a lot faster than older people with new trends. And their trends can influence adults.

[incrediBILL]

Almost none of the young people I know use the comparison products you mention.

Interesting observation as all the young people I know use both, just like their adult counterparts. While you don't see them using those laptops, they most certainly do in class or at work.

And they move a lot faster than older people with new trends.

Not in this house - we've always been ahead of the curve when we were younger with cell phones, tivos, laptops, etc. and we still are being older with smart phones, tablets, etc. and I even have a Parrot drone, the next wave of digital mayhem.

Of course, that's because were techno-nerds.

YMMV

[Stuey]

Couple of points from a newbie here (I've just added my new Facebook website page):

Demographic targeted make a big difference? Mine is students mostly in Unis, so I'm still thinking FB fairly strong there. Slightly older, still use laptops more etc.

On the Laptops v Mobiles etc: again a student group would be more likely to remain on laptops or possibly bigger formats such as tablets (essentially smaller versions of laptops).

[Stuey]

As an update, I've just posted my first Facebook ad campaign to go with this too.

[Whitey]

And this is partly why they bought Whatsapp [webmasterworld.com...]

Growth in the next generation done differently.