Over the last few weeks, we’ve heard about Facebook playing politics with its news feed. Well, it looks as though Facebook users are responding by spending less time on the site.
This is from news reports:
The updated data shows that Facebook’s core platform lost 18% in time spent, which is a huge change from the month before. This, says Pivotal, reflects a “24% decline in time spent per person.” Instagram, too, saw some poor engagement numbers. Though aggregated consumption went up, the user base went up at a higher clip, meaning that time per person went down 9%.Overall, this shows a mounting problem for Facebook: People are just engaging less with it.Algorithm changes may have something to do with it, and Zuckerberg even told shareholders to expect such a change.But these numbers could also indicate that people are becoming more fatigued by the platform.If this trend continues, we may be seeing a shift in the Facebook-Google duopoly.The question is: Who will take Facebook’s place?
I don’t know who will take Facebook’s place, but I’m one of those spending less time on the site.
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