On Thursday October 28, in East America, at its annual conference called Facebook Connect, Facebook announced that Facebook has changed its company name to "Meta". The new name reflects the company's needs outside of media, and the company will develop a new computer based on virtual reality. Facebook is betting on the “meta universe” going forward, and the name change is the real deal. Facebook has announced that it will begin marketing products under the new “MVRS” brand from December 1. At the same time, the meta CTO also said, “The Oculus brand will only be strong when it is gone. "

Earlier this year, a Facebook analyst reported suspicious data to colleagues.

The number of young Facebook users in the United States has fallen 13% since 2019 and is expected to decline 45% over the next two years. It is estimated that the number of young people in their twenties and thirties will decline by 4% at the same time.

To make matters worse, less users they usually use the middleware application.

Clear instructions. Facebook is rapidly losing popularity with young people.

Facebook is old

"The problem with aging is real," the researchers wrote in a note. They predict that "if young people are less and less likely to choose Facebook as they get older," they predict the business will face "weight loss" for younger users than expected.

If not, this 17-year-old relationship could be lost for the first time.

This inside information was presented to Congress by General Counsel Francis Hogan in a presentation to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Francis Hogan was a former Facebook employee and later a well-known journalist.

Facebook has been striving to attract users under the age of 30, starting in 2012. However, according to data, the falling problem for young Facebook users has worsened in recent years. It was speculated that the adults of the app users might keep young people away from the app.

To cope with the loss of users, Facebook began providing services by attracting young people and teens using Instagram, a photo and video sharing app, and forming a team of passionate young people. In 2017, Facebook announced an independent messenger for children. However, plans for a minor version of Instagram haven't lived up to the legal penalties for newbies.

At the same time, more and more young relationships are gaining popularity among young people like TikTok. Facebook has closely followed the results of its own research, with Facebook staff estimating that teens spend two to three times more time on TikTok than on Instagram, and that young people interact with their best friends. is Snapchat.

Facebook expert Joe Osborne said, "Our product is still widely used by young people, but we have strong competition with companies like Snapchat and TikTok." "Every social media company wants young people to use their services. We're nothing special."

Facebook through the eyes of young people

In March of this year, Facebook chief marketing officer Chris Cox unveiled "health scores" for teens and teens using Facebook and Instagram. Instagram is still popular among young people, but has lost its involvement in major markets such as the United States, Australia and Japan.

The age of Facebook's user base is growing rapidly.

“Young people often think of Facebook as a place for people in their 40s and 50s,” “Young people think content is boring, confusing, and contains negative content. Most of the time, it's important to skip trivial content. "Health and inadequate services affected," he added.

According to a report by Cox in March, in the United States, "the young are decreasing, which makes them heavier." 18 patients were reduced by 26% compared to last year. For young people who have already signed up on Facebook, the company goes on to say that "we see less or less engagement compared to adults." Posts from teens were down 16% from a year ago, while posts from users in their 20s and 30s remained the same. Over 30 users spend an average of 24 minutes more time on Facebook per day than younger users.

Facebook measures its user base according to UN estimates of the population of a country / region. If the number of monthly users of a relationship in an age group equals the estimate for the area, then it is completely saturated.

Today, the average age of Facebook users has increased faster than the average age of the average population. If this continues, the average age of Facebook apps will increase, which could lead to a drop in the number of users.

Instagram works best with young people and is popular in the US, France, UK, Japan, and Australia. However, the researchers noted that the number of posts by young people is "still the most concerning", with the number of posts down 13% from 2020, adding that greater use of TikTok among young people " will lose any timeshare ".

Product Updates

In response to the growing crisis, internal data shows that Facebook and Instagram employees have been planning products for teens and teens for years. But they know it will be a battle between the two platforms.

According to the November 2020 data strategy for young people, young people “believe that Facebook should not be a place of grievances and accusations, even if they are somewhere on the platform”. “External factors such as poor media coverage have deepened this understanding,” he said.

In the past, young and old alike have joined Facebook to tackle adolescent “critical risks”. In November of last year, Facebook started planning and improving its products and plans to introduce new features.

The design has been on Facebook for teens since November of last year

Do “we can build trust and gain trust that can continue into the future,” like mental health products. They drew up a multi-year plan to “engage young people with professionals for vocational training” and “have meaningful discussions on the reasons for working with others in the region”.

Plans include asking young people to change their Moments network to involve them more. Because the current connection is "dormant and difficult to achieve after gathering hundreds of friends over the years." . Facebook has started tweaking its news feed algorithm specifically for young people. We aim to test this change as early as the middle of this year and introduce "disconnected" conditions for funds you violate.

We also talked about several new features that allow teens to set up different Profile IDs for specific Facebook groups. Make it “meet and engage” by including more knowledge about media streams and “thought streams” temporarily dubbed Spotlight.

Facebook created an unannounced Facebook group ad and plans to start testing it in an article in November this year that will allow people to join the special groups. A "relationship with the community" with character as a means of "making a cultural impact". All product posts for people in their 20s and 30s focus on competing with LinkedIn, allowing people to withhold their data and search for jobs or vacancies through resources. .

Facebook expert Joe Osborne said, "We continue to research new products and new experiences for people, but these efforts will not continue or go into the research phase."

Ensure the privacy of young people

For Instagram, most of Facebook's recent work on marketing products to youth has focused on reducing negative users. A report released earlier this year found that 7% of teens report bullying on Instagram and 40% of bullying happens in private messages. Other internal research reports published in the past by the Wall Street Journal show that young users are less positive and even more depressed when using Instagram.

61% of new teen Instagram accounts choose to keep their personal information early on in setup, and Instagram staff encourage teens to spend more time on their personal accounts.

Instagram wants to keep its users to a minimum by taking care of themselves.

The Facebook researcher wrote in a recent post: “Teens are looking for ways to connect with their friends, but they don't want to tell any fans about it. " To know. "

According to the New York Times, app director Adam Mosseri told staff in May that Instagram's goal is to "become a place where young people define themselves and their futures."

the future is uncertain

Michael Sayman, a 25-year-old product manager, joined Facebook in 2014 at the age of 17. With the advent of mobile selfie cameras, social media has become a thing of the past and Facebook has focused on advertising.

Some past experiences on Instagram come from the fact that people share details of their daily life and as the days go by these topics disappear and are replaced by new content. This reduces the sharing load for users and Instagram also encourages the use of multiple accounts. However, the use of Facebook by young people is still on the decline. When Sayman left in 2017, "The company has a clear understanding of its importance. It's a whole generation."

Today, more and more young people are flocking to immersive social gaming platforms like Fortnite or its current employer, Sayman Roblox. The 3D world with customizable avatars is very attractive for young people who want to connect and run away from people to determine their appearance or their surroundings. A lot of social interactions are like drama, but these virtual games are very exciting.

It has become an opportunity for Facebook to change its role, and in the future, Facebook will focus on the meta world, and gaming is a key gateway to the meta world.

So far, we don't know if Facebook has enough plans to take him back to his youth.

In an interview with Cox in March of this year, he said: “I think it's too early to measure the performance of the many big game giants on Instagram and the boys. girls on Facebook, start the challenge now.

Young people can give Facebook more time, but changing the name of Facebook is a decision of the past. Is this a gamble on the "metamonde" or an attempt to "break the shell" of the Facebook name change?

Liens:

https://www.theverge.com/22743744/facebook-teen-usage-decline-frances-haugen-leaks