Facebook may not be as appealing to younger teens as it once was if a new report is to be believed. eMarketer has released a new report which predicts that Facebook is going to see a decline in usage by the 12-to-17-year-old demographic this year. It’s a big deal because this is the first time that eMarketer has predicted a decline in Facebook usage for any demographic.
Aside from the users who have given up on Facebook altogether, eMarketer finds that teens and tweens that do remain on Facebook are less engaged. They’re logging in less frequently and spending less time on the platform.
We also have “Facebook-nevers” now, which is a term that it has coined for children aging into the tween demographic that are overlooking Facebook entirely in favor of services like Instagram and Snapchat. Instagram is owned by Facebook so it’s got that going for itself.
eMarketer predicts that about 14.5 million users between the ages of 12 to 17 will use Facebook in 2017, registering a 3.4 percent decline year-over-year.
It also finds that audiences under 25 are spending less time on Facebook as well while they too are increasing the time that they spend on Instagram and Snapchat.
eMarketer predicts that Snapchat is going to see an improvement in its usage statistics for the 18 to 24 demographic. This particular demographic is expected to register a 19.2 percent growth in Snapchat usage this year.