Facebook's Q3 profits maybe up by as much as 60 percent compared to its 2012 income but the social network acknowledged that it is losing appeal to the younger teens. Half of the company's $2.02 billion income comes from its mobile business but, while this is good news, it also indicates that younger users might be unfriending the social media company. It seems Facebook might be keeping grandmas busy on their News Feed but youngsters are getting bored and looking for cooler social networks.
After announcing its earnings for the period, Facebook's shares in after-hours trading jumped by 15 percent but dropped by almost two percent after the announcement of Facebook that teens are spending less time on the platform. The social network now has more than 728 million users on a daily basis and 1.19 billion active users every month.
"Our best analysis on youth engagement in the US reveals that usage of Facebook among US teens overall was stable from Q2 to Q3, but we did see a decrease in daily users, specifically among younger teens," said Facebook CFO David Ebersman in a statement.
"We wanted to share this with you now because we get a lot of questions about teens," Ebersman added.
Ebersman clarified that the statistics about teen engagement might not be as accurate since the particular demographic has been known to indicate inaccurate birth dates although the company developed metrics to monitor Facebook usage of teens.
The statement Ebersman came after Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company is hitting its goals.
"For nearly 10 years, Facebook has been on a mission to connect the world. The strong results we achieved this quarter show that we're prepared for the next phase of our company, as we work to bring the next 5bn people online and into the knowledge economy," said Zuckerberg.
A report on eMarketer quoted statistics based on a study by a Piper Jaffray study released in September that revealed that Facebook is still a social media giant but losing its popularity. Twitter is now the most popular social network as of Fall 2013 followed by Zuckerberg's Facebook and Instagram sharing the second spot.
Another study done by RBC Capital Markets was also cited. The research revealed that 41 percent of users between 16 and 18 years of age spent less time on Facebook as of June 2013 compared to their usage in 2012. About 35 percent of the same users said that they will be spending less time on it come 2014.
Facebook might have proven its prowess in developing its mobile business but it is clear that the behavior of teenagers dictates what will make money on the Internet.
