Sharjah24 – AFP: Facebook announced on Thursday that its daily user numbers had fallen for the first time in its history, reopening the debate around its problem with attracting new, younger subscribers.
The firm's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, was in no doubt who was to blame.
"People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly," he told investors, according to US media.
TikTok has continued its soaring growth, particularly among younger audiences attracted by its user-friendly controls and upbeat content of mostly very short, self-made videos.
"TikTok from the beginning has focused on a younger audience -- the style of the content, the music, the dancing," says Flavilla Fongang, who runs London-based branding agency 3 Colours Rule.
"Their moment has really come in the pandemic, where people were desperately looking for ways to stay connected."
In the same time period, Facebook -- whose parent company has been renamed Meta -- has been battling regulatory issues, negative headlines around bullying and disinformation, and on Wednesday faced a huge slide in its share price.
That said, Facebook remains the world's most popular social media network by far.
It lost one million daily users in the last quarter of last year but still has almost 1.9 billion, figures that dwarf every other platform.
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