New study shows Meta is losing teen users

Different social media platforms are in chaos right now as each tries to adopt new trends to attract more users. One of them is Meta, which owns Instagram that has been rolling out video-centered features in desperation to catch up with the TikTok craze taking the young generation by storm. Meta is doing the same to Facebook. Now, a Pew Research Center study shows why the company is trying hard to please the young generation these times.

Facebook is in trouble, according to a study conducted by Pew Research Center on US teens aged 13 to 17 from April to May of 2022. Despite its fame as one of the first social media platforms that entered the 20th century, only 32% of US teens are using it this year. Worse, Facebook used to comprise 71% of the said demographics during Pew’s 2014 to 2015 research, which means it lost a considerable number of users.

On the other hand, while Instagram grew from 52% to 62% in this year’s study, TikTok is threatening it. Despite only debuting globally in 2018, the short-form video hosting service is now being used by 67% of teens. And just behind Instagram is Snapchat, which has prospered from 41% to 59%.

YouTube sits comfortably at the top of the study with 95% teen users, but it is not Meta’s biggest competition right now in terms of social media market share. Most young individuals are just using the online video-sharing platform to watch videos rather than interacting with others online. TikTok, on the other hand, threatens Facebook’s and Instagram’s roles in the field as it accumulates more and more influencers and users despite being new to the game. With this, it is no wonder that Meta is trying hard to mimic the ByteDance-owned app to the point of even altering Instagram’s original nature as a photo-focused platform. But how far can it go, and would its effort be enough to prevent the further exodus of teen users in the future?