14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is not cool for teenagers anymore – it’s a phrase that keeps getting repeated in studies. Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg shakes her head and says that things have been blown out of proportion.
While rumors had been around for a while, it was David Ebersman, Facebook CFO, the one who had the snowball rolling during last quarter’s earnings call, when he admitted that there has been a decrease in daily users, specifically among young teens.
Of course, the darkest futures were quick to get painted. But things aren’t nearly as bad as they may seem, says Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s COO.
“So I think the reaction to that comment has been blown out of proportion. As we said on the earnings call, overall U.S. teen usage of Facebook remains stable. The vast majority of U.S. teens are on Facebook. And the majority of U.S. teens use Facebook almost every day,” she told AllThingsD.
She believes the issue is another. The fact that they’ve been around a while is working against them. “One of the challenges we face right now is that we’re a decade old. That means that we’re not the newest. And often, particularly in our space, newer things are shinier and cooler,” Sandberg said.
Furthermore, she points out that right now the company doesn’t want to be the “coolest” anymore, it wants to be the most useful.
“I think if you look at the way teenagers continue to use Facebook, we are useful to them,” Sandberg said.
Facebook seems to be maturing alongside most of its users and given the fact that it has over 1 billion users gives it the right and space to stop chasing that first spot and focus on expanding and developing the company and the service in order to make it better and more useful for everyone involved.