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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg teased a “ reappearance to OG Facebook ” as part of his key destination for 2025 in Wednesday ’s Q4earningscall with investor . While the troupe was short on details as to what specific changes lay in storage , it ’s readable that Meta is in desperate want of younger Facebook users to substantiate itself for the next generation .
involve about his plan for the “ OG Facebook , ” Zuckerberg answer that it was one of Meta ’s focus sphere for the year ahead and something the caller planned to both invest in and expend meter on .
“ I think there are a lot of opportunities to make [ Facebook ] way more culturally influential than it is today , ” he noted .
The White House also warned investors that these changes to Facebook may expect some tradeoff in term of “ maximize business outcome in the penny-pinching terminus ” — a signal that receipts could be strike . He said the intersection modification would begin to roll out within half a class or so .
“ I think some of this will kind of get back to how Facebook was originally used back in the day , ” Zuckerberg said , while tight - lipped on any other particular .
Declining interest in Facebook among young mass is becoming a trouble for the technical school titan , especially as its core grownup users extend to age .
According to a written report byeMarketerreleased last August , U.S. Gen Z users ages 18 to 24 spend far more time on TikTok , followed by Instagram and Snapchat — twice as much time , in fact , equate with the entire U.S. grownup population . Meanwhile , a 2024 survey byPew Researchfound that U.S. teenager ’ ( 13 - 17 ) usage of Facebook had dropped sharply over the years from 71 % in 2014 - 2015 to just 33 % .
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Often , what appeals to Gen Z is n’t even the social networking aspects of Facebook ; it ’s the more utilitarian featureslike Facebook Marketplace .
Meta has long been aware of these challenges , having launch aGen Z - focused redesignof its age societal internet in October 2024 , prognosticate great emphasis on local community information , video , and Facebook Groups , among other thing .
The troupe now aims to build on those change with a further refresh of the Facebook product in 2025 , though its ability to contend with Gen Z ’s preferent app , TikTok , remains uncertain .
What ’s more , Gen Z users have sent a strong signaling that they ’re ready to move on from Meta , if TikTok were to remainbannedin the U.S. rather of returning to Meta ’s platform , young the great unwashed downloaded RedNote , another Chinese app similar to TikTok , before of and during thebriefly enforcedU.S. TikTok ban .
It may be unmanageable , if not impossible , for Facebook to ever again pull in younger drug user by returning to its “ OG ” roots . The company had already tried to reignite its original look of exclusivity by launching a side of Facebookcalled Campusin 2020 that only catered to college and university bookman . That effort wasshuttereda year and a half later on after failing to take off .
Meta has also smatter in using other help , like on-line geological dating , to tempt in fresh drug user , with little success .
Meanwhile , new societal internet are being build on theopen social web , powered by communications protocol like ActivityPub , used byMastodon , and AT Protocol , used byBluesky , allow mass to take back control over their data and social connections from the centralise , billionaire - controlled platforms owned by Big Tech . As these networks grow , they ’ll become competition for efforts like an “ OG Facebook . ”
Meta has been put to work to harbour investors from Facebook ’s decline for years .
In Q4 2019 , Meta ( thencalledFacebook)introducednew stats for investors called family daily active people and family monthly fighting people . afterwards , in Q1 2024 , Meta took step to outdistance itself from per - app metrics by excrete daily participating and monthly dynamic users in its quarterly reports in favor of its folk of apps ’ metric .
In its filing at the clock time , Meta said the decision was meant to good showcase how many people engage with all of its products , not just Facebook and Messenger . In all likelihood , it serve well another purpose , too : to hide Facebook ’s declination within Meta ’s larger “ household ” group of apps .
