In the quarter ending September 30th Facebook crushed earnings on Mobile Ad strength, recording a $425 million profit and as a result stocks skyrocketed 15%, but on Wednesday during an earnings call Facebook CFO David Ebersman admitted Facebook is losing it’s stranglehold on the young teen market.
Our best analysis of youth engagement in the U.S. reveals that usage of Facebook among U.S. teens overall was stable, however we did see a decrease in daily users specifically among younger teens.
Ebersman hedged that admission, stating the trend was “of questionable statistical significance” noting that adolescents’ have a tendency to lie about their age, making a true analysis difficult. Still, he said “we wanted to share this with you now because we get a lot of questions about it.”
According to a recent survey by Piper Jaffray, of 8,650 teens interviewed 23% preferred Facebook. This is down from 42% in 2012 and 33% in Spring of 2013. In contrast, Twitter is most popular among teens ranking in at 26%. But Facebook can take solace in the growing popularity of its recently acquired photo-sharing network, Instagram. Not to mention their $1 billion offer for another insanely popular photo-sharing app, Snap Chat.
The news about teens leaving Facebook is nothing the social giant hasn’t faced and it shouldn’t be overshadowed by what is truly an outstanding quarter. Daily active users up 25% and revenue up 60% from the same quarter last year, Facebooks ability to migrate and monetize users to mobile is nothing short of astonishing; 49% of advertising revenue came from mobile. I believe Zuckerberg & Co. have a good handle on where their business is headed, whether your tween likes it or not.
