During Facebook's Q3 2013 earnings report, CFO David Ebersman revealed that young teens were using Facebook less. It prompted speculations that teens were losing interest in Facebook and turning their attention elsewhere. Now, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg is trying to clear the air.
Sandberg has said that reports that teens are deserting Facebook are over-exaggerated.
"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 Ebersman during the company's Q3 conference call.
Ever since Ebersmen dropped the bomb, speculation has been rife that teens are deserting Facebook. Conjectures even hint that teens would rather use photo-focused social media sites like Instagram or Snapchat.
While Facebook had been quiet all this time, in an interview with AllThingsD, Sandberg has now clarified the issue.
"I think the reaction to that comment has been blown out of proportion," Sandberg told Mike Isaac of AllThinsgD. "The vast majority of U.S. teens are on Facebook. And the majority of U.S. teens use Facebook almost every day."
Sandberg said that this wasn't the first instance when everybody had gone into a tizzy about the class of youngsters and adults on Facebook. She also revealed that Facebook was not trying to be cool as founder Mark Zuckerberg had said.
"One of the challenges we face right now is that we're a decade old. That means that we're not the newest. And often, particularly in our space, newer things are shinier and cooler. And what Mark [Zuckerberg] has said and what we all believe is that we're not trying to be the coolest. And we're not trying to be the newest. We're trying to be the most useful,"said Sandberg.
Sandberg also spoke about Facebook's $3 billion attempt at acquiring Snapchat. She let on that considering the social sharing market was booming, Facebook would rather look to be in an evolving market with strong rivals rather than a market that was shrinking. Despite new services coming up, Facebook continued to grow, per Sandberg.
