Meanwhile On Social Media... How WhatsApp Is Eating Away Facebook's Population
Facebook is under attack from messaging app WhatsApp, as more and more teenagers are choosing the IM app over the social network. Why though?
By Melody Oei — 12 Nov 2013, 06:01 PM — Updated almost 11 years ago
Facebook made a startling admission in its earnings announcement this month
Facebook CFO, David Ebersman, revealed in a statement that Facebook was seeing a "decrease in daily users, specifically among teens".
In other words, teenagers are still on Facebook; they're just not using it as much as they did. It was a landmark statement, since teens are the demographic who often point the rest of us towards the next big thing.
Facebook is apparently losing teenage users to WhatsApp and other similar IM apps
Their gradual exodus to messaging apps such as WhatsApp, WeChat and KakaoTalk boils down to Facebook becoming a victim of its own success.
mobiletor.com
The road to gaining nearly 1.2 billion monthly active users has seen the mums, dads, aunts and uncles of the generation who pioneered Facebook join it too, spamming their walls with inspirational quotes and images of cute animals, and (shock, horror) commenting on their kids' photos.
theguardian.com
No surprise, then, that Facebook is no longer a place for uninhibited status updates about pub antics, but an obligatory communication tool that younger people maintain because everyone else does.
in.com
WhatsApp has more than 350 million monthly active users globally
“That makes it the biggest messaging app in the world by users, with even more active users than social media darling Twitter, which counts 218 million”, according to this report in The Guardian.
firstpost.com
Some valid reasons for messengers trumping social networks like Facebook these days
Firstly, it is private. You need not worry about the whole world knowing about what you’re doing and there are definitely no parents to worry about.
in.com
Secondly, they revolve around one-to-one contacts, the “selfie” being an important part of this. Apps like Instagram and Snapchat are thriving because of the need to post self clicked pictures and yet keeping them private.
firstpost.com
Another major reason is the fact that these cross-platform messaging applications are mini-social networks in their own rights. Apps like KakaoTalk, WeChat and Line have features beyond IM.
Over time, of course, as with the Facebook model, older demographics will likely adopt the message app paradigm. By then, teens will have found something else. And the cycle will continue.
Image via lipstiq.comAlthough WhatsApp seems to be doing great, one can never be certain with social media platforms
Other stuff you might find interesting: How do you feel going through 19 of these Whatsapp pains?
