Is Snap Taking Away Facebook’s Younger Crowd?

A new report from research firm eMarketer this week has revealed that Facebook may be losing its younger followers. The part that’s exciting for Snap is that these followers may be headed to SnapChat.

The firm has “lowered its projections for Facebook usage for those under 18, while increasing its projections for Snapchat for the same age group.”

eMarketer’s report reads, “Even as Facebook’s US user base continues to grow overall, its share of social network users will continue to decline. It will drop most precipitously for those between 12 and 17 — 81.9% of US social network users in that age range will use Facebook this year; that figure will drop to 76.2% by 2021.”

“In contrast, eMarketer has increased its projections for Snapchat usage this year in line with reported data. The platform will grow 25.8% to reach 79.2 million total monthly users in the US. While growth figures were adjusted higher for all but the oldest age group, the biggest adjustment was made to the 18-24 group. That age range will see usage grow 19.2% this year.”

“Similarly, total Instagram usage will grow 23.8% this year in the US to 85.5 million, more than previously forecast. This year, Instagram will grow its user base among Americans under 12 by 19.0% and those 12-17 by 8.8%.”

“Even though Instagram has more users overall than Snapchat, the younger social network beats Instagram in two key age groups: 12-17 and 18-24. In fact, eMarketer’s latest forecast now — for the first time — has Snapchat overtaking both Instagram and Facebook in terms of total users 12-17 and 18-24. As a result, Snapchat’s share of social network users will grow to 40.8% this year, reaching nearly half by 2021.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Facebook, Inc. Common Stock (NASDAQ: FB) nor Snap Inc (NYSE: SNAP) and have not been compensated for this article.