FB still has a wide impact and emerging markets are its challenge

Facebook has been criticized and blamed by the industry more or less every week for some time recently. These criticisms and accusations are often linked to the continued loss of Facebook's young users in the U.S. market. At the same time, Facebook's loss of young users in the US market has raised questions from some in the industry and analysts, who even feel Facebook will face a massive loss of users in the future, such as researchers at Princeton University have recently used an algorithm Facebook is expected to see a 80% loss of users by 2017.

Of course, Facebook has no weakness for the predictions of Princeton University's research institutions. In its own way, he has used the calculations of Princeton University research institutions to predict that Princeton will have only half of the students left in 2018, and is further predicting that the world's air supply will disappear by 2060. Of course, Facebook's predictions are just about hitting Princeton. In fact, Facebook still has a lot of clout in most markets around the world, although Facebook is under greater pressure in the US, but there are some challenges ahead.

Facebook's stress in the US market:

Facebook does face some worrying factors in the U.S. market, which is no alarmist or a joke. Industry-related data show that the number of registered users of Snapchat has reached 50 million, and over the past year, the number of young users who have Snapchat-burn chat applications has doubled three times times. At the same time, another information application Kik is steadily developing, with the number of users reaching 100 million last year, and Kik is becoming increasingly popular among young users in the US and elsewhere.

In fact, information applications are also popular with older users. For example, WhatsApp has more than 400 million active users, and this application has now become a daily information platform for many users, and the number of messages sent by users on this platform has reached 18 billion per day.

There is no doubt that in western markets, Facebook does need to remain attractive to meet the needs of younger users. It is said that Facebook is preparing to launch a series of new apps to help solidify its lead in the Western social networking market. However, it should not be overlooked that Facebook cannot afford to lose sight of itself, and that it needs to take steps to consolidate its position in the global social networking market and to introduce services and applications for that purpose.

Global influence:

Of course, while Facebook faces some worrisome conditions in the US market, it does not suggest that the social networking site is facing a major crisis. In fact, Facebook is still far from reaching a crisis level, after all, the social networking site still has 1.1 billion active users, who use Facebook every month.

In fact, about 728 million people use Facebook and its mobile apps every day, with about 507 million users using Facebook or related apps on mobile devices every day. This data is huge and unprecedented. In terms of global influence, the world's other Internet companies are almost impossible to compare with Facebook, perhaps only Google (Weibo) can match it.

In addition to these huge data, Facebook is still a strong market in many markets, and Facebook is still an important platform to face the competitive pressures of some information applications or other applications. In Asia, Africa and other emerging markets, for example, Facebook is still the network used by most users. In other words, users in these markets spend most of their time online using Facebook services-chatting with friends, uploading messages and sharing messages. Of course, in addition to Facebook, these emerging market users will also use information applications and other services, because Facebook offers a different way of connecting-that is, interacting with the extended family and friends network in an open way.

Not just an Internet service:

Interestingly, in markets such as Asia and the Middle East, most users fully regard Facebook as a service entirely independent of the Internet. For example, in the Southeast Asian market, there has been a conversation between users:

--"Do you use the Internet?"

--"No. ”

"But you have a Facebook account, right?"

"Yes, but Facebook is not the Internet, it's just my phone." ”

In emerging markets, smartphones have become a major tool for users to use Facebook, plus a large number of packages offered by the operators, making it easier for users to use Facebook. So it is not surprising that Facebook has become more than just a social network, but also an Internet yellow page.

Challenges facing global development:

The real question is how Facebook, as a business, can use a huge user base in emerging markets to generate revenue. Advertisers in emerging markets tend to be more cautious, and they certainly have a certain electric-business budget, but they are a rarity compared with developed markets such as the US. And, as far as users are concerned, information applications have become more and more of a threat to Facebook because they are not just a chat tool, but are also rapidly evolving around the world.

Thankfully, however, Facebook's business model for the mobile business is developing well, much better than expected. In addition, Facebook is still popular in the global marketplace, so the overall picture is still good.

Perhaps the most notable factor in Facebook's global clout is the desire and determination of its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, to connect the world. In the industry's view, Facebook is definitely a service that can connect people more effectively.

Facebook's Internet Project (Internet.org), which was launched last year, is still at an early stage. What is expected is the success of Facebook's Internet project from the perspective of providing universal Internet connectivity.