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 (3rd,
4th, 7th place is these age groups, except 55+) and
Messenger (8th, 6th, 3rd and 2nd 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.
