A study conducted by Global Web Index (GWI) has revealed that the news of Facebook’s demise has been greatly exaggerated.
According to the research company, the ‘Social Q1 2014’ study was conducted among 170,000 social media users in 32 counties which represents 89 percent of the global Internet population.
The findings concluded that though the number of Facebook users from the age group of 16- to 19-years has nearly dropped by three percent in the past six months, the number of teenagers using it on their mobiles has increased.
While a recent report from University College London claimed that ‘Facebook is dead and buried to teens’, founder and CEO of GWI, Tom Smith, said “Our study shows that reports of ‘the death of Facebook’ have been greatly exaggerated”.
As per the study report findings, Facebook with 83 percent global account ownership, 49 percent active usage and 56 percent visit frequency figures still remains to be the world’s number one social network. Facebook is followed by YouTube (59 percent), Google+ (58 percent) and Twitter (51 percent) in terms of accounts.
More than 56 percent of active Facebook users visit the site more than once a day, while 95 percent visit the site on a weekly basis. In comparison daily active users on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Google+ hovers around 30 percent.
“We’ve been able to show that Facebook is still used by 48.5 percent of 16 to 19 year olds globally on a monthly basis, with 67 percent more active teen users than the nearest competitor, YouTube, with 29 percent,” Smith added.
Other findings from the study indicate that messaging apps have experienced huge growth between Q2 and Q4 of last year. The estimated audience size for WeChat rose by 379 percent, Vine by 105 percent, SnapChat by 54 percent and WhatsApp by 35 percent.