It is often said that “Eras come to an End”, which could be the case for social media giant Facebook, as the arrival of two social media platforms, BeReal and TikTok has been reported to shake up its dominance as Facebook is currently losing its grip as a top 10 app.
According to an analysis of iPhone App Store data, it revealed that Facebook has been struggling to maintain its position among the top 10 apps in the U.S, as younger customers most especially Generation Z are shifting to newer social networking experiences like BeReal and TikTok.
Last year, it was reported that Facebook fell out of the Top 10 free iPhone apps in the U.S seven times, while in 2022, the figure soared to 97, an indication that Facebook may be losing ground as new apps push their way into the App Store top rankings.
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Facebook only stayed once out of the Top 10 apps, as long as 37 consecutive days in 2022. The big blue app hasn’t consistently held onto a strong position in the top 10 in prior years. Its lack of dominance, has been attributed to the company’s inability to inspire a new generation of users, which is something the company is concerned about, a topic its CEO Mark Zuckerberg has spoken candidly about before.
Whether it’s for casual entertainment or formal education, Gen Z prefers to consume content in video formats, which has no doubt seen the rise in the user-base of uniquely young social media users from across the world, to prefer TikTok which has catapulted the social media platform to be a dominant force in the global technology.
One of the features that make TikTok unique, is that videos made on the platform are typically characterized as raw, high-energy, and deeply engaging because TikTok provides advanced yet simple-to-use tools for users or businesses to embed music and visual effects on videos.
It has been revealed that users tend to have significantly higher engagement rates on their post, when compared to using Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. On the other hand, new “anti-Instagram” apps like BeReal seem to also attract a lot of Gen Z users due to its unique features. As the app name suggests, BeReal claims to help users be more authentic online.
Just as millennials fueled the rise of earlier social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, Generation Z is fueling the rise of TikTok, Snapchat, BeReal, and the likes.
The rise of these new platforms is not merely a story of the ongoing success of certain technology companies, but more importantly, the ushering in of the next generation of socially aware and digitally discerning users. Due to Facebook’s gradual loss of its grip as a Top 10 app, in order to keep up with the pace of these emerging platforms, the Blue app is presently making massive radical changes.
No doubt, Facebook is still by far the world’s biggest social network, with almost 3 billion people logging in on the platform every month, although pressure from TikTok and other new apps is forcing it to make significant changes for fear of being displaced.
The social media app has already introduced TikTok-like short videos called Reels two years ago. Just recently, it is currently changing its playbook by shifting focus from news tab and bulletin to creator’s economy. The big blue app has also been retooling its teams to make serving young adults its main focus, rather than optimizing for the larger number of older people using the app.