Facebook Admits Some Decrease of Usage Amongst Young Teens for the First Time

techcrunch.com

10 points·hackhackhack··3 comments

Do they need young teens? Facebook is better as a mature communication platform with a wide range of acquaintances and friends. Young teens can grow up with SnapChats and whatever's popular in the moment, and then migrate to Facebook in their early to mid 20s.

Why would they migrate, and why would they migrate to Facebook?

The reason people use a social network is because they coalesce around their peers. If an entire demographic is not attracted to a product, they're all free to bind to another. Grabbing them at that 'first choice' all but ensures lock-in.

Not sure why investors freaked out over this news...

Will it hurt Facebook 5 years from now? Maybe, but I'll get back to that. Right now Facebook is growing their revenue like crazy while daily users is still growing. Mobile revenue is now around 50% and they killed expectations.

As for the decrease in usage with younger teens...luckily they bought insurance. It's called Instagram. A thriving and rapidly growing social network, which just so happens to be popular among teens.

If Facebook did not own Instagram, then I would completely understand the market's reaction to hearing that. In my mind, this is just the market over reacting.

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