Less-cool Facebook losing youth at fast pace: survey

With mom, dad and grandma signing up in increasing numbers, Facebook is losing younger users in the United States at a faster pace than previously estimated, researchers said Monday.

A report by eMarketer said Snapchat is drawing youths away from Facebook at a quicker clip than Facebook-owned Instagram.

Facebook is still growing in the US market, according to research firm, mainly due to increases in usage by older age groups.

The report is the latest to highlight Facebook's problem with attracting and keeping young people, who have long been a core user base for the world's biggest social network.

The research firm said it expected the first-ever decline in the 18-24 age group in the US, a drop of 5.8 percent this year.

It also said that for the first time since its research began, less than half of the 12-17 age group in the United States would be on Facebook, with a 5.6 percent drop in that segment.

The under-12 age group meanwhile will see a decline of 9.3 percent this year, eMarketer said.

The same trend is expected to continue into 2019 and 2020, with declines in all segments of US users under 25, the report added.

Facebook will lose an estimated two million users under 25 this year, with Snapchat and Instagram the main beneficiaries.

The report said Snapchat will add 1.9 million users under 25 in 2018 and Instagram will add 1.6 million.

Snapchat, which is known for its disappearing messages, will continue to have more users aged 12 to 24 than Instagram, the researchers said.

But Snapchat could end up facing a similar problem as it seeks to increase its user base and reach all ages.

"Snapchat could eventually experience more growth in older age groups, since it's redesigning its platform to be easier to use," eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson said.

"The question will be whether younger users will still find Snapchat cool if more of their parents and grandparents are on it. That's the predicament Facebook is in."

Facebook remains the most popular social network in the US market with an estimated 169.5 million users this year, according to eMarketer.

But faster-growing Instagram will be used by 104.7 million Americans and Snapchat will reach 86.5 million users, according to the forecast.

Last year, eMarketer predicted Facebook would see declines among some youths for the first time in its history.

A report last year by investment firm Piper Jaffray showed Snapchat is the preferred social network for US teens, with 47 percent using the platform.

Snapchat redesign sparks backlash among some users
Washington (AFP) Feb 12, 2018 - Snapchat's latest app redesign, aimed at broadening the appeal of the youth-oriented social network, sparked a backlash from many users complaining about the abrupt overhaul of their preferred service.

More than 578,000 users had signed an online petition by midday Monday calling on parent firm Snap Inc. to roll back the update, which was released last week.

"Many users have found that it has not made the app easier to use, but has in fact made many features more difficult," the petition at change.org states.

"Many 'new features' are useless or defeat the original purposes Snapchat has had for the past years."

The update separates the "media content" from that of friends, a move aimed at avoiding problems faced by social media rivals Facebook and Twitter on proliferation of misinformation.

But a flurry of Twitter comments took issue with the update to Snapchat, which has become a favorite of teens for its disappearing messages but also offers content from various media partners.

"I don't even wanna use Snapchat till they fix this update, I just immediately get mad when I open the app," one user tweeted.

Another Twitter comment said, "this snapchat update is the worst thing to happen since U2's album was downloaded to everyone's phone."

Supermodel Chrissy Teigen added her voice to the protests, tweeting, "How many people have to hate an update for it to be reconsidered?"

Some Snapchat users complained the app was updated automatically and may have caused the loss of some messages or archived data known as Memories.

Twitter users offered tips on how to uninstall the update to get the old version of the application.

But the Snapchat support team tweeted that "unofficial workarounds to change the way Snapchat looks are temporary and can result in getting permanently locked out of your account or losing Memories."

Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst who follows social media for the research firm eMarketer, said it was too soon to judge user reaction to the redesign.

"We're watching users' reaction to Snapchat's redesign very closely, but at this point we don't see it having an impact on usage among young people," she said.

"It's very possible that once they get used to the new way the app is laid out, they will use it just as heavily as before."

An eMarketer survey released Monday showed Facebook is losing younger users at a pace faster than anticipated, with many switching to applications like Snapchat or the Facebook-owned Instagram.

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