Recently, I read Parmy Olson’s new post “Here’s Where Teens Are Going Instead Of Facebook” on Forbes. She point out a statement that a growing number of teenagers are less likely to become active on Facebook. Meanwhile, mobile chat services like WeChat and WhatsApp, and photo-sharing apps like Instagram and Snapchat have become more and more popular among the youth. As far as I am concerned, I am in favour of  her views.

According to Parmy’s survey, she found the number of teenagers in 30 countires who are active on Facebook had dropped to 56% in the third quarter from 76% in the first quarter in 2013. And the biggest decline in active usage (by 52%) was in the Netherlands while there was a 16% decrease among American teenagers.

So where are teens going instead of Facebook? Parmy mentioned  mobile chat services like WeChat and WhatsApp, and photo or video-sharing apps like Instagram, Snapchat and Vine.

Despite of  the incredible growth in active users of WeChat, I think most teens in the western countries even never heard  it before. Because it is a popular mobile app among the youth based in Chinese communities, which is owned by the Chinese Internet giant Tencent. WeChat allows people for instant messaging, which works like Facebook  and WhatsApp in the same way.What’s more, there seems a trend that teenagers rely more on mobile messaging through platforms like WhatsApp or Wechat, instead of Facebook. Therefore, Facebook needs to pay attention to this big concern.

Reference:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/11/12/heres-where-teens-are-going-instead-of-facebook/