Who will be the next Facebook?

The next Facebook is, well, Facebook. 

To be more accurate Instagram and WhatsApp Messenger, which were purchase by Facebook, have the greatest potential for growth of all current social networks. The two most important drivers of social media are “visual” and “being born on mobile”, which Instagram is on both counts, and which WhatsApp is in the case of the latter.

Instagram was one of the best tech acquisitions in recent years. Acquired by Facebook in April 2012, it’s estimated that Instagram generated between 250M-400M in revenue for Facebook in 2014.Instagram is currently the  fastest growing any social platform, with the exception of WeChat (100M users, versus Instagram’s 300M users) . Instagram gets 15 times the engagement level of Facebook and 25 times that of Twitter.

The WhatsApp acquisition was a master stroke for Facebook. WhatsApp had a strong presence in geographies where Facebook was the weakest. Their user bases complement each other.  In late 2014, WhatsApp Messenger surpassed SMS in number of messages sent. In combination with Facebook’s own Messenger application – now its own mobile/web app – these Messenger app are becoming a platform onto their own, on which other developers can build. 

Looking at mobile apps, as of July of last year, Facebook held the top spot in all age groups (18-24, 25-34, 35-54 & 55+), followed by Instagram (3^rd, 4^th, 7^th place is these age groups, except 55+) and Messenger (8^th, 6^th, 3^rd and 2^nd place).  Over 91% of 18-34 year olds are on Facebook – clearly, the exodus of the Millennials away from Facebook is not as true as some report.

Finally, two thirds of all times spent on social media is spent on Facebook.

Clearly, Facebook is the next Facebook.