Last week I noted that Facebook use sharply dropped after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, according to SimilarWeb, but as it turns out, the downward trend started even earlier -- specifically, right around the US Presidential election, in November 2016. (See above.) Since then, total monthly visits to Facebook in the US (both on the web and through the mobile app) have fallen from around 8 billion/month to what it is now, about 5 billion/month -- a loss of some 3 billion visits.
An analyst with SimilarWeb kindly shared the above data with me -- though for the record, he doesn't necessarily share my belief that the election itself is a causal factor: Rather, he believes there was just more activity in the run-up to the election (users sharing and arguing over the latest campaign news, and so on) which dropped off after the votes were counted and Trump was announced as winner; and also, on mobile, more Facebook users are using alternate social media apps like Instagram and WhatsApp more. (You can see that mobile usage is what's been declining since November 2016, while desktop usage has remained roughly steady from month to month.)
That's certainly possible (and definitely part of the downward trend), but I have another interpretation:
Desktop users tend to skew older and are generally associated with daily usage routines (i.e. logging into Facebook from work on the office computer), so it makes sense that desktop Facebook usage would remain steady. Meanwhile, the majority of Facebook usage has been via mobile for years, so it makes sense that this is where usage would take the main hit. In the end, only Facebook itself will know just how much #DeleteFacebook and general user anger at the social network in relation to the election has caused this ongoing drop. What is certain, however, is that the drop is happening.
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