By the end of this year, Snapchat is set to become the most popular social media platform in the UK for 18- to 24-year-olds.
According to a new report by eMarketer, Snapchat’s user base will grow by 350,000 by the end of 2018 to just under 5 million and put it ahead of Facebook for the first time in the UK.
Facebook’s user growth is declining a new younger generation of social media users, referred to as the “Facebook-nevers”.
“These so-called Facebook-nevers are eating into Facebook’s user growth significantly,” said Bill Fisher, a senior analyst at eMarketer. “Many younger social network users are forgoing Facebook altogether in favour of more appealing mobile-first alternatives, such as Snapchat.”
Facebook will suffer the second year of declining use by the younger generations, to 4.5 million.
The social media app, which is known for its disappearing messages and filters, has not gone without its problems. When reality star Kylie Jenner tweeted to her 25 million followers “does anyone else not open Snapchat any more?”, over $1.3 billion was shortly wiped off the company’s value.
Last year a controversial redesign of the app prompted over a million people to sign the petition to reverse the “annoying” changes.
Despite Snapchat’s growth, Facebook still remains the most popular social media platform in some way.
Snapchat is about half the size of Facebook and has just over 16 million users in the UK. This year’s growth for the app is expected to be over nine percent.
“Facebook is still adding monthly users overall, but older age groups are mainly responsible for this,” said Fisher.
The fastest growing new users for Facebook are the 55 and older demographic, as older generations are trying to keep up with the social lives of their children. Almost 37 percent of Facebook’s UK user base is over 45.
