Facebook use eroding in US as social media under pressure
Facebook use eroding in US as
social media under pressure
Facebook's efforts to crack
down on misinformation and sensational content have reduced the time spent at
the leading social network eroding, researchers said Tuesday.
The
average amount of time US adults spent at Facebook dropped by three minutes per
day last year and will likely decrease by another minute next year, to a total
of 37 minutes daily, according to the research firm eMarketer.
The report suggests that Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg's
efforts to focus on safety and remove divisive and hateful content could be
having an economic impact.
"Facebook's continued loss of younger adult users, along
with its focus on down-ranking clickbait posts and videos in favor of those
that create 'time well spent,' resulted in less daily time spent on the
platform in 2018 than we had previously expected," said eMarketer
principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson.
"Less time spent on Facebook translates into fewer chances
for marketers to reach the network's users."
Money taken in from digital ads are the leading source of
revenue at Facebook, which has 2.4 billion monthly active users around the
world.
A bright spot for Facebook is that daily US engagement is creeping up at its image and
video focused social network Instagram, where eMarketer expected it to rise a
minute this year to 27 minutes and then another minute per year through 2021.
"Features like Stories, influencer content and video are
all contributing to more engagement and a slow but steady uptick in time spent
on Instagram," Williamson said.
Meanwhile, time people in the US spend at Instagram rival
Snapchat has seemingly plateaued at 26 minutes daily, with an application
redesign failing to boost engagement, according to eMarketer.
A broader trend seen last year was for Americans to spend less
time at online social networks, and the overall engagement was expected by eMarketer
to remain unchanged this year at almost one hour, 14 minutes per day.
"Gains in digital video viewing are putting pressure on
social time, and gaming is also creating new competition for user
attention," Williamson said.
"Though we can't say there is a direct cause-effect
relationship, these activities do at least threaten users' engagement with
social media."
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