Network Effects in Social Media
In earlier years, Facebook was extremely popular among middle and high school students. However, its usage by this age group has recently been on the decline. It has been predicted that the number of 12-17 year old users will fall 3.4% this year. Additionally, the teens and tweens that have not already left Facebook are spending less time on the website than in previous years. This change in usage has been attributed to the rise of other social networking platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, which are rising in popularity among the younger demographic. In fact, many tweens are choosing to solely use these apps, foregoing Facebook altogether. The shift in popularity between these social networking platforms can be explained by network effects.
One explanation for this behavior is information-based reasoning. Instagram and Snapchat are both newer than Facebook, and may simply be more useful and enjoyable. For example, Snapchat’s features allow a user to post content without the same permanence that a Facebook post is seen to have, and has fun selfie filters. Thus, kids who are new to social media may choose to follow the crowd of other kids because they would rather use what they have collectively determined to be the better app. Another explanation is direct-benefit reasoning. A middle schooler in the process of choosing a social media site to make an account on would rather use the same one as his friends and classmates. There is also very little benefit for him to join both sites, as any of his friends on Facebook are probably also using and posting more content to Instagram or Snapchat. These network effects end up having a very powerful impact, and are creating a mass migration from Facebook to other social media platforms. There is good news for Facebook though – they still own Instagram.
https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Instagram-Snapchat-Adoption-Still-Surging-US-UK/1016369