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What’s Kept Facebook From Dying?

| February 12, 2020

Why people still use Facebook in 2021

It was not that long ago that Facebook seemed like an unstoppable juggernaut that was going to continue to grow ad infinitum. Fast forward to today, and you now have people talking about leaving Facebook and how there are other platforms that can serve you better.

Is Facebook dying? Is the user base dwindling? Will it be toppled by some other social media platform? If you are looking at Facebook user statistics, it doesn’t seem like it is going to go away any time soon. Even with some people leaving the platform, the user base has only continued to grow. Engagement is also still high, with the average user spending about 37 minutes a day on Facebook.

So with the issues Facebook has faced, how has the platform managed to stay relevant? What are they doing to keep people coming back? In this post, we are going to look at some of the reasons why people use Facebook.

Still the Largest User Base

A big part of Facebook’s continued success has to do with the fact that it is still the largest social media site in the world. It has 2.8 billion monthly active users and about 1.8 billion daily active users. Many people still use the site to find other people and to stay connected with friends and family. For many of us, it just makes sense to stay on Facebook because it keeps us up to date with everyone we know.

And it isn’t just people from our personal lives. Most of your professional contacts and the businesses you shop with have a presence on Facebook. In those respects, it can also be useful for learning about the latest news from your favorite brands or for contacting businesses when you need information about the products and services they provide.

Facebook Groups

Community is a big part of the reason why people keep coming back to Facebook. The groups are one feature that has played a big role in this regard. With Facebook groups, you can join communities that have similar interests or concerns as your own. The groups not only foster a sense of community, but many of the members view them as a valuable resource. You don’t just go to the group to hang out, you share information, provide each other with support and organize around issues and causes that are important to the members.

Facebook Messenger

The Messenger app has also been an important factor for keeping people on Facebook and attracting new users. It is one of the most used chat apps in the world, so it offers a convenient way to communicate with friends and family. Many businesses also use the app, so it can also be good for things like customer service issues or for when you need to ask a question about a product you want to buy.

Facebook is continually working on ways to improve the app. You have things like custom reactions, stickers and chat themes that help to make the experience more fun and more personal. Along with that, the fact that businesses can build chatbots for the app makes it even more useful for businesses and consumers.

Great Mobile App Experience

Another thing that has helped Facebook keep its users is the fact that you can take all of these features and functions anywhere you go. They have built an app that performs well and keeps users engaged. If you look at the Facebook user statistics, you see that 96% of users access the platform from a phone or tablet.

Facebook Marketplace

Facebook is also finding new ways to keep users by expanding into more areas of people’s lives. One of the ways it is doing this is with features like Facebook Marketplace. It offers a convenient place for people to buy and sell products. Not only that, but you can use many of the standard Facebook features to find products, check out reviews and communicate with sellers. As more people adopt features like Marketplace, it will become harder and harder for them to leave the platform.

The Future of Facebook

Facebook isn’t perfect, but it is not dying. It is still the largest social media platform on the planet and it still plays a huge role in the lives of most of its users.

That does not mean that the platform will continue to grow forever. It has received criticism over privacy issues, it had a data breach a few years ago and it has also taken some bad press as the site has played a role in spreading misinformation.

Beyond those issues, Facebook has more competition than it used to and it doesn’t seem as cool as it once did. It is hard to seem cool when people see their grandparents using an app. Newer platforms will probably take some users or engagement time from Facebook.

With that said, it seems hard to imagine the platform falling into obscurity. It has so many users and it fills so many roles for people in their personal and professional lives. It might have lost some of its cool, but it is almost like a utility. People of all ages have accounts and people recognize that they would be giving up a lot by leaving the platform.

The reason why people still use Facebook is because it is still a great platform. It might not seem cool like it once did, but it has just become too useful. It might have issues and there might be things people don’t like about the platform, but Facebook has done a lot of work to make itself difficult to give up.

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