Any and every business, if it wants to be successful, has to have a pipeline of new customers. This is especially true of online business and in particular social media companies. According to an article in the New York Times, Facebook (or the new Meta, as we are supposed to call it) expected that Instagram would be it´s growth engine, but has struggled with engaging with teenagers and also retaining their interest and time dedication online. Critical in the mix of customers are US teenagers who have featured prominently in the company’s marketing plans in the last few years and since 2018 the company dedicated huge budgets to this goal, reaching $390 million in 2021, through digital ads. Yet, despite this massive spend Instagram, in a recent survey earlier this year from Piper Sandler, was only the third most popular social media platform with only 22%, versus 35% share by Snapchat. During the pandemic the hours that children spent on the platform increased, ”Instagram relied on teenagers to spend an average of three to four hours a day on the app, nearly double what adults spend on it”. However, this was never going to be a permanent position as children were gradually brought back to some form of normality in their education and going out became more feasible. Instagram has tried to be a main attraction for young audiences, which coincided with the issues and challenges that the company has faced with the data scandals, but they have realised that they “would never be a teen destination”. Legislators need to ensure that the power of these platforms is limited and parents need to be aware of the dangers that tech addiction (and social media) can bring.
#socialmedia #instagram
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/16/technology/instagram-teens.html