'Crisis Theory' Facebook... 25% of Users Left in South Korea Over Two Years

Facebook's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Zuckerberg is unveiling Facebook's new mission and logo.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Facebook, which is facing a crisis globally, has seen its monthly users in South Korea decrease by about one-quarter over the past two years, according to an analysis.

On the 21st, according to Mobile Index, a big data analysis solution, Facebook's combined monthly active users (MAU) in South Korea from Google Play Store and Apple App Store last month was 11,096,919.

This figure represents a decrease of more than 25% compared to 14,870,910 in May 2020. It also dropped by about 17% compared to July last year (13,347,761).

In South Korea, Facebook has long been perceived as a 'middle-aged SNS.' This is because domestic politicians mainly communicate with their supporters through Facebook, while younger generations have shifted to short-form services like TikTok, which allow communication through shorter messages and videos than Facebook.

In fact, according to the 'SNS Usage Status by Generation' report released by the Korea Information Society Development Institute (KISDI) in June, the Facebook usage rate among the millennial generation (ages 25?38) last year was 27.0%, a significant decrease from the 48.6% Facebook usage rate among people in their 20s in 2017.

The stagnation and decline in Facebook users is a global phenomenon. The global market research firm Statista reported that Facebook's worldwide monthly active users in the second quarter of this year totaled 2.934 billion.

This was only a 1.3% increase compared to the same period last year (2.895 billion), and when compared to the first quarter of this year (2.936 billion), the number of users decreased by about 2 million.

As in South Korea, the main cause is attributed to the departure of the MZ generation (born in the early 1980s to early 2000s). In the first quarter, global TikTok users spent an average of 23.6 hours per month on TikTok. In contrast, Facebook recorded 19.4 hours. TikTok even surpassed YouTube usage time (23.2 hours).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.