Why millions left facebook

It represents about 6 percent of the total U. What makes it particularly important is if it is part of a trend. Obviously, the U.

This is a survey just of the USA. Adams: Are those people going somewhere else or leaving social media altogether? Rosin: We only show trace numbers of people leaving social media altogether. The big gainer, interestingly, is under the same roof as Facebook. Adams: Do you have any sense as to why people are leaving Facebook in particular?

Then we have to consider whether some of these other social media platforms, in particular Instagram and Snapchat, are just more appealing to younger people. Edison also looked at media hardware and found smartphone ownership continues to rise.

About 84 percent of us in the U. Smart speaker ownership saw a big jump in the last couple of years and keeps climbing. One interesting trend developing around smart speakers is that people who get one tend to want multiple. Alternative social networks such as Instagram , the photo sharing site that won 30m users in 18 months before Facebook acquired the business a year ago, have seen surges in popularity with younger age groups. Path, the mobile phone-based social network founded by former Facebook employee Dave Morin, which restricts its users to friends, is gaining 1m users a week and has recently topped 9m, with , Venezuelans downloading the app in a single weekend.

But in developed markets, other Facebook trackers are reporting declines. Analysts at Jefferies bank have developed an algorithm that interfaces directly with Facebook software and it "suggests user levels in [the first quarter] may have declined from peak", according to a recent note.

Jefferies saw global numbers peak at 1. Numbers rose again in April. The network has now lost nearly 2m visitors in the UK since December, according to research firm Nielsen, with its 27m total flat on a year ago. The number of minutes Americans spend on Facebook appears to be falling, too. The average was minutes in December , but that fell to minutes in February, according to comScore. No matter what business you have, taking the privacy of your users into consideration, both online and offline, will pay off big-time in the long run.

If one thing can be taken away from this shift, it's as an entrepreneur, it's you need to begin investing in advertising platforms that aren't Facebook if you don't already. With the cost of Facebook ads increasing year after year, coupled with many users limiting their time on the platform, other apps will provide fresh opportunities for your brand to be seen. There's a very good chance these platforms will yield even better results for your business.

We are living in the age of technological disruption. Let's not forget that just a decade ago, Yahoo was still considered "cool", MySpace was still kicking and Netflix was largely known only for delivering DVDs to your house in an envelope.

The marketplace moves at breakneck speed. New companies quickly become the old, even those as massive as Facebook. Today, no company is bulletproof, so be sure and take extreme caution when acting on behalf of your business.

As daunting and dramatic as it sounds, one wrong move, whether that be a misguided Tweet or insensitive Facebook post, could have huge consequences. Always be innovating and mindful of what you're putting out into the world. Over the past year, percent of younger users have deleted Facebook off their phones, but Facebook's problem with gaining traction popularity among younger generations goes far beyond privacy.