Facebook’s chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg told NBC News that without data-targeted ads, Facebook would look like a pay service. Aleksandra Michalska reports.
The website that has defined a generation is dying a slow death. When Facebook first launched on February 4, 2004, the company obsessed with two things- being “cool” and getting as many people addicted to its platform as possible. It accomplished the former by excluding old people — literally — at first you needed a .edu email address to create an account. It accomplished the latter by “exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology”, as inaugural president Sean Parker put it. This strategy worked well for Facebook. Really well.
But recent events have many experts coming to the conclusion that Facebook’s best days are behind her. Former Facebook executives, as well as tech moguls like Elon Musk and Tim Cook, have recently slammed the social network. The Cambridge Analytica scandal has brought on a new wave of scrutiny over user data. The rise of Snapchat and Facebook-savvy grandmas have rendered the website no longer cool to young people. #deletefacebook is trending across the internet.
More: You are not friends with Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. You are their product.
According to eMarketer, Facebook will lose 2 million users under 25 this year. Less than half of U.S. Internet users ages 12 to 17 will use Facebook this year for the first time. These projections are not good, particularly when you consider the fact that the research was conducted before Cambridge Analytica.
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