Just a few months ago it seemed to be bound to go bust and, to tell you the truth, evidences of its decadence were pretty obvious. Now Snapchat, the instant social medium loved by teenagers (and not only!), is actually taking aficionados away from Facebook, followed by Instagram which, in fact, has taken from Snapchat its most original and interesting features. Read it in Italian. 

Teenagers have been long known to love visual social media, but, in addition to psycho-pedagogical theories, now figures are confirming such trend. A new research by eMarketer, made in Great Britain and in the United States, takes into consideration the 2016-2021 interval to show the effects of such exodus. The survey involved people aged 12-17 and 18-24.

While Facebook has apparently been losing its appeal for the second year in a row, Snapchat e Instagram are fighting tooth and nail. It was estimated that, by the end of 2017, in Great Britain and in the US Snapchat will grow by 20%. However, Instagram users have increased by about 35%, proving that they are stealing users from its enemy after having also copied some of the key features which have made it so popular among teenagers (Facebook is losing UK and US teens to Instagram and Snapchat).

More specifically, according to the report forecast, in 2017 Snapchat users should increase by 25,8% (79,2 million users/months) in the US, with 19,2% new users aged 18 – 24.
Instagram monthly users in the US, instead, should increase by 23,8% in 2017 (85,5 users/month), with an increase of the number of under 12 of 19% and of the number of users aging 12-17 of 8,8%.

In the United States, Snapchat is expected to exceed Instagram and Facebook figures for the first time in 2017, reaching up 40,8% of the market, and to subsequently get to over 50% by 2021.
In the UK, Zuckerberg’s young users are expected to decrease by 2,8% (12-17 years old) and by 3,1% (18-24 years old).

With reference to the UK, the forecast is that Instagram will score +34,8% against 2016, which will translate in 16,7 million monthly users in 2017. Snapchat is instead estimated to be about to reach +20,2% with 14 million monthly users, i.e. one fifth of the population (Teens favoring Snapchat and Instagram over Facebook, says eMarketer).

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to thing that Facebook is now doomed. Menlo Park is still really successful among adults, to the point that the social media has stated their revenues on incomes will reach up to 45% (9,3 billion dollars), also thanks to mobile applications. We shall not forget that Facebook owns one of its “rivals”, Instagram. So what is lost on one side is compensated by the other (more or less). If you cannot beat it, buy it!

Do you or your children use Snapchat and/or Instagram or do you dislike them? What do you think about visual social media success among young people? Tweet @agostinellialdo.

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