Facebook is moving away from postings from friends and toward recommendations, and this is a part of that migration.
The popularity of Facebook among “young adults” is perhaps not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the social network that is Facebook, which has been around for twenty years. It is only natural that Meta would like to see that change, and the company is once again announcing to the world that it intends to realign its platform in order to enhance its attractiveness to the demographic in question.
According to Tom Alison, who is in charge of the Facebook app for Meta, the service is undergoing a transition that will result in a “increased focus on young adults” in comparison to other users. This information was provided in an update. “Facebook is still for everyone, but in order to build for the next generation of social media consumers, we’ve made significant changes with young adults in mind,” he said. “Facebook is still for everyone.”
Meta executives have been trying to win over “young adults” for years in an effort to better compete with TikTok. If any of this seems familiar, it is because they have been trying to do so throughout the years. A little over three years ago, Mark Zuckerberg expressed his desire to make young adults the “North Star” of the organization. Alison and Zuckerberg have both been discussing the transition of the Facebook app to a feed that is more focused on discovery rather than one that is centered on the connections that users have with one another.
The transition is currently fully under progress. The artificial intelligence developments made by the company have already resulted in improved recommendations for Reels and feed, and Alison stated that “advanced recommendations technology will power more products” over the course of the following year. In addition, he mentioned that private sharing among users is also increasing, with an increasing number of people uploading videos. However, there is no information regarding the alleged plan to incorporate chat back into the primary app.
It is important to notice that Alison’s email does not make any reference to the “metaverse,” which Zuckerberg formerly considered to be an essential component of the company’s future outlook. In its place, he asserts that “leaning into new product capabilities enabled by AI” is a crucial priority, in addition to getting younger consumers to join up for the service. In light of the fact that Meta and Zuckerberg have recently attempted to reframe some of the company’s metaverse objectives as breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, this statement is also not surprising.
However, it is not quite apparent how effective Meta will be in its efforts to win over young adults with its products. Despite the fact that Alison claims that Facebook has experienced “five quarters of healthy growth in young adult app usage in the United States and Canada,” with 40 million young adult daily active users, this is still a relatively small percentage of the 205 million daily users in the United States that Facebook reported in February. This was the last time that the company would break out user numbers for the app.