U.S. Facebook Users Largely Unfazed by Recent Scandals

Source: Statista

In response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that saw the data of millions of Facebook users illegitimately harvested and used to manipulate people ahead of the U.S. presidential election, many experts anticipated a mass exodus of users from Facebook. Now that the smoke has cleared and things have calmed down a bit, it appears as if, luckily for Facebook, most users are actually unfazed by recent events. According to an Ipsos poll conducted April 26-30 on behalf of Thomson Reuters, the vast majority of Facebook users in the United States haven’t limited their usage of the platform in response to the scandal.

While 18 percent of Facebook users responded that they use it less than they used to and another 4 percent have stopped using the site altogether, just 1 percent deleted their account recently. Conversely 26 percent of those polled have increased their Facebook usage and another 49 percent haven’t changed how frequently they use the world’s largest social media platform. While it’s hard not to read the results in connection with the Cambridge Analytica story, it should be noted that the respondents weren’t explicitly asked whether they changed their behavior in response to it. They were merely asked whether they had “recently” changed how frequently they use Facebook.

Facebook Infographic

Where Snapchat’s Users Come From

When Snap, the company behind Snapchat, filed for its initial public offering last week, it not only granted us a first look at the financials behind the popular smartphone app but also revealed the size of its user base. According to the registration document, Snapchat had 159 million daily active users by the end of 2016, up from 106 million a year ago and 71 million at the end of 2014.

With 68 million users, North America (including Mexico and the Caribbean) has the largest Snapchat fan base ahead of Europe (52 million) and the rest of the world (39 million). While still growing, the rate of Snapchat’s user growth slowed down significantly in the second half of 2016. Interestingly, that slowdown coincided with the launch of Instagram Stories in August. While copying a feature from your rival’s playbook may not have been the most elegant move by Instagram (or Facebook for that matter), it certainly was effective: by October, Instagram Stories already had 100 million daily users, illustrating how big a threat Instagram with its 600 million users poses to Snapchat’s long-term success.

This chart shows Snapchat’s user growth since 2014.

Infographic: Where Snapchat's Users Come From | Statista
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