More Than Half Of The U.S. Is Now On Facebook

According to new findings from eMarketer, social media use continues to climb to the point where the biggest network, Facebook, is now being used by over 50 percent of the U.S. population.

While growth will slow in some categories through 2020, that’s primarily because the numbers are so lofty. Facebook is already in use by 88 percent of U.S. social media users and that number should remain largely unchanged over the next four years. While the network is losing social media users of the teen set, older users who have previously not been part of the population of social media users are making up for that loss.

Indeed, by 2018, more than 50 percent of Facebook’s user base is predicted to be 35 years of age or older. Yet, even Facebook’s ’teen problem’ isn’t as simple as a drop in use. Teen use is actually up slightly and will continue to rise. The loss is in existing teenage and millennial social media users, who are starting to move to other networks like Snapchat and Instagram even as new youthful users finally start using Facebook.

A few more other takeaways about Facebook use are noted in the report:

• Female internet users are almost 10 percent more likely to use Facebook than men. That number will roughly maintain through 2020.
• Hispanic users will grow to 20 percent of Facebook’s U.S. user base by 2020.
• By 2020, over 40 percent of Facebook users will solely access the network via mobile.

Facebook Growth Is Slower Than Some Other Social Media Platforms

Instagram use continues to rise. By 2020, it’s predicted to be in use by more than 1/3 of the U.S. population. Their install base is expected to remain 2/3 under 35 years of age. No word on how the much-discussed algorithm changes might affect those numbers.

White-hot Snapchat is now in use by 23 percent of U.S. consumers. Their users are also very young, with 63 percent falling between the ages of 13 and 24. Snapchat is the key to that young demographic and the platform is working hard to make itself more attractive to as an advertising tool.

Despite recent struggles, Twitter is predicted to grow from being used by about 1/5 of the U.S. social media user population to more than 1/3. Their user base will age slightly but the majority is still expected to be under 35 by 2020.

Pinterest is used by just 15 percent of the U.S. population and it is expected to grow to just shy of 20 percent by 2020. Their base remains on the older side (more than 50 percent over 35) and predominantly female. While Pinterest has a smaller user base, brands targeting that portion of the population know the platform is an ideal way to reach them.

Social Media Mobile Use Soars

eMarketer’s findings on mobile use of social media line up with a recent report from comScore. In fact, by 2020, the report predicts that 91.9 percent of social media users will use smartphones to access their platform of choice. 83.3 percent were already there as of last year. Most of those users take a hybrid approach, using both mobile and desktop/laptop access as it suits them. Yet, almost 37.5 percent are expected to be mobile-only social media users by 2020. By contrast, the desktop/laptop-only user percentage will shrink to less than 6 percent by then.

Figures Source: eMarketer