eMarketer’s latest report, “Snapchat and Twitter 2018: Many Challenges, but a Few Things Advertisers Still Like,” lays out usage and advertising activity on the two platforms and examines how Facebook’s myriad challenges could affect its usage.
But there are no clear trends about Facebook engagement, and moreover, there is no evidence that dissatisfaction with the platform is necessarily benefiting either Snapchat or Twitter.
In the weeks after the Cambridge Analytica news, which broke in March 2018, studies conducted by privacy researcher Ponemon Institute found a drop in Facebook users’ belief that the company was committed to protecting their private information. In a study conducted in 2017, 79% of respondents agreed with that statement. And in a survey conducted the week following the news, just 27% of Facebook users polled agreed.
However, one week after the Cambridge Analytica revelation, Ponemon found that just 9% of survey respondents had stopped using Facebook, while 45% said they were not likely to stop, and 15% of users said there was “no chance” of stopping.
A study by the Pew Research Center had a more ominous set of findings. In a survey conducted in May and June 2018, 26% of US Facebook users ages 18 and older said they had deleted the app off their phone in the past 12 months, and 42% had taken a break of several weeks or more. In addition, 54% adjusted their privacy settings.
The data comes from a well-regarded research organization, so it shouldn’t be dismissed. At the same time, it isn’t known whether any of the 26% had decided to reinstall the app after deleting it. And Facebook says the ratio of worldwide monthly users who log in daily has remained at 66% for the past couple of years.