Beyond Screens: Re-Evaluating Facebook’s User Count

In Meta’s annual report, the company revealed some interesting figures on Facebook’s users. The report showed that Facebook experienced a slight drop in users towards the end of 2021.

Since the report, the internet has been going crazy, and headlines have been looking at why Facebook is doomed, or failing, or not popular anymore, as if the platform’s about to shut down. That’s not the case at all, and people need to calm down!

Where Have These Facebook Stats Come From?

Meta released its annual financial report for 2021 on February 2, 2022. The report listed all of Meta’s financials for the year, and also for the fourth quarter. Meta released this report, as many other companies have also recently done, to give investors an update on the company’s performance.

Image Credit: Meta

The report also revealed some interesting stats about Facebook’s user numbers, as Meta included these figures in the report.

Overall, Facebook’s number of users has declined from approximately 1.930 billion daily active users (DAUs) to approximately 1.929 billion DAUs. To qualify as a DAU, a user must perform at least one action on the Facebook platform besides just visiting the site.

This is the first time Facebook’s DAU number has declined, which is interesting to note. But the internet is freaking out as if Facebook is on the brink of collapse. That’s not the case at all. Here are three reasons why everyone needs to chill out about Facebook’s user numbers.

1. Facebook Has Barely Lost Any Users

As Meta’s report included rounded figures, we have to take an average decrease of 500,000 users. It could be slightly more, it could be slightly less. That equates to a decrease in users of 0.025%.

A 0.025% drop in users is insignificant for a platform the size of Facebook. Even with the slight decrease, the platform still has 1.929 billion DAUs. That’s roughly 25 percent of the planet’s population, or more realistically, just over 40 percent of all people who have access to the internet.

Related:What Does FAANG Stand For?

That’s enough of the numbers, you get it. Facebook has, literally, billions of users, which is an insane userbase. The platform is still going strong, and half a million users barely makes a dent.

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2. It’s Natural for Facebook to Lose Some Users

When you’re a social media platform as large as Facebook, it’s only natural to eventually see a slight decline in users. This is especially the case when you’re talking about an existing userbase of almost two billion individuals. Let’s put our business hats on for a second.

When businesses plan their route to market and their strategy, they have to consider the target market. This usually considers age, location, and other demographics like that. Target market can be broken down even further to the target accessible market (TAM), who are those you can actually reach.

Even with an incredibly broad target market, like Facebook’s undoubtedly is, there comes a point when you run out of people who want to sign up . In this case, it’s because a lot of them are already signed up, but there’s a portion of the market who just aren’t interested.

Image Credit: The Internet Peering Playbook

Delving even deeper, you can consider the critical mass curve for a platform’s users. Critical mass is the minimum number of users you need to sustain value in the product with no other product changes. Usually businesses want to work up this curve towards critical mass, but there’s a point when you exceed it.

Once you’ve exceeded critical mass, it no longer becomes organic for a platform to continue to generate users. As Facebook passed critical mass years ago, the platform is in that position. And, as it no longer needs to generate users, it’s going to begin to lose some.

3. Meta Is Focusing on the Metaverse

In 2021, Facebook (the company) changed its name to Meta. This is now the holding company that owns all of Facebook’s products, including WhatsApp and Instagram. With this new name came a shift in focus–to the metaverse.

Meta is going full steam ahead on the metaverse, regardless of whether you love it or hate it. As a result, it’s currently less focused on Facebook as a mere social media platform.

Related:What Is the Metaverse?

If Meta does indeed bring the metaverse into the mainstream, it’s likely it will continue to pursue that area. At this point, perhaps Facebook becomes less important for the company. Or perhaps Meta will integrate Facebook into the metaverse itself.

Regardless of what the company is trying to do, it’s clear that Meta has taken its foot off the Facebook accelerator for the short-term, and that’s OK. If Mark Zuckerberg isn’t worried, why should anyone else be?

Chill Out! Facebook Is Fine

While we’ve been looking at why the drop in users isn’t a big deal, it’s important to acknowledge that Facebook did lose some users. Why? Because people’s heads have been turned to other social platforms focusing on short-form content, especially the younger generation.

We acknowledge Facebook’s slight drop in users, we’re OK to talk about it, but we’re pretty sure it isn’t the end of the world. In other words, chill out, because Facebook is doing just fine, thank you.