Time spent on Facebook falls as Instagram rises
People are spending less time on Facebook and Snapchat has flatlined. But Instagram dwell time continues to grow (eMarketer).
Key points
- eMarketer says average time spent on Facebook for US adults dropped 7% to 38 minutes in 2018
- Predicts will flatline this year and fall again in 2020, reversing earlier upward forecast
- No increase in time spent for Snapchat since 2017, eMarketer expects no growth to 2021, revising down earlier forecast
- By contrast Instagram to grow 4% this year and almost 12% on 2018 numbers by 2021
- “Facebook’s continued loss of younger adult users, along with its focus on downranking clickbait posts and videos in favour of those that create ‘time well spent,’ resulted in less daily time spent on the platform in 2018 than we had previously expected.”- eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson
- “Less time spent on Facebook translates into fewer chances for marketers to reach the network’s users.”
That’s why Facebook bought Instagram and WhatsApp. The mothership may have peaked but the offspring grow more powerful. Instagram’s push into shoppable ads via Checkout, launched in March, could ultimately turn everybody into a shop, reckons Bloomberg. Keeping people on platform to complete purchases – if Checkout flies - could push up time on site higher than eMarketer predicts, because they never have to leave Instagram. By happy coincidence, users become not just the product, but the product vendors. What a time to be alive.
Meanwhile, although people in the U.S. might be spending slightly less time on Facebook, it’s still miles ahead of the pack: 41% higher than Instagram in 2019 and remaining 28% higher in 2021, according to eMarketer’s reading of the auguries. Crucially, marketers are still going there, in ever increasing numbers.
