South Korea’s young abandon Facebook

Facebook’s monthly average user numbers are dropping sharply in South Korea, largely a consequence of younger users quitting the platform.

What’s happening

The number of monthly average users of the social platform have declined by more than 25% over the past two years, according to figures from data tracker IGAworks, cited by Yonhap. Reports suggest that those in their teens and twenties are migrating to Instagram, and that more users are complaining about the ads on the platform. 

The details 

• The July 2022 MAU total (based on data from mobile app stores) stood at 11.09 million, a steady decline from 13.34 million in July 2021 and from 14.87 million in May 2020.
• Separate data from the Korea Information Society Development Institute indicate that 27% of 25-38 year olds used Facebook in 2021, compared to 49% in 2017.
• Also from 2021, the most-used social platforms in South Korea were YouTube (85.9% penetration rate), followed by KakaoTalk (80.1%), Instagram (57.5%), and Facebook (55.4%).

The metaverse isn’t (yet) the answer  

While most South Koreans over the age of 14 are aware of the term ‘metaverse’, just 10% of a new survey had actually used a metaverse platform – and few of them were satisfied by the experience, citing a lack of content and service instability as issues.

Sourced from Yonhap, Korea Bizwire, Inquivix