A new comScore report released this week calls into question the generally accepted belief that millennials have been largely eschewing Facebook in favor of services like Snapchat and Instagram.
The “Cross-Platform Future in Focus” report shows the percentages of internet users aged 18 to 34 who are frequent users of each of the major social networks and how much time they spend on each one.
It turns out that millennials actually spend more than 2.5 times the number of minutes on Facebook that they do on second-placed Snapchat. Millennials spend an average of 1,000 minutes per month on the site, compared to Snapchat’s 400 minutes.
Re/code published a chart of this data, and it clearly shows that Facebook has such a hefty lead that it is way off in its own quadrant on the chart, while the other services are bunched together at the lower end of the scale. Some of the other platforms included in the assessment include LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr, and Vine. The data used in the report was taken from Americans in December.
It turns out that nearly 100 percent of young people in the millennial age category use Facebook. Meanwhile, Facebook-owned Instagram is only used by 65 percent of millennials.
This news will be welcomed by investors, who were becoming increasingly concerned about the social network’s ability to attract and retain younger users. It’s also useful for advertisers who are seeking out that valuable demographic.
Younger millennials using Facebook less than older ones
It’s also important to note that despite its users spending a lot of time there, Facebook attracts a lower percentage of people on the younger end of the millennial group than other services. The age group of 18 to 34 is a vast one, with people aged 34 generally being at very different stages in life than those aged 18. When the data is broken down further, Facebook’s edge is a lot less pronounced. In fact, only 16.5 percent of its users fall into this age range; Snapchat, on the other hand, boasts 46.8 percent of its users being in this category. In this segment, Facebook actually fares nearly at the bottom of the list.
Facebook clearly feels some pressure from Snapchat, and it has recently been taking steps to compete with the platform. Snapchat might have a smaller user base, but it manages to snag tremendous engagement, and this is extremely important for advertising.
