Facebook’s core social media service in the US will lose 2 million users aged up to 24 years of age in 2018 as they migrate to Instagram and Snapchat, research company eMarketer predicted.

In a report, the company forecast Snapchat will add 1.9 million users aged 24 and under in 2018, while Facebook-owned Instagram will pick up 1.6 million. In 2017, Instagram’s clone of Snapchat’s Stories feature proved to be more succesful than the original, though Snapchat is catching up: parent Snap’s Q4 2017 results show it increased daily active users.

However, Instagram overall is still bigger in the US than Snapchat. Instagram’s US users will total 104.7 million in 2018, up 13 per cent year-over-year, while Snapchat will see its US user base increase by 9.3 per cent to 86.5 million.

“Snapchat could eventually experience more growth in older age groups, since it’s redesigning its platform to be easier to use,” eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson said: “The question will be whether younger users will still find Snapchat cool if more of their parents and grandparents are on it. That’s the predicament Facebook is in.”

US first
As for Facebook’s own social media platform, eMarketer stated 2018 will be the first time less than half of US internet users aged 12 years to 17 years-old will use Facebook via any device. Users in the age range will decrease by 6 per cent through 2018, as will the number aged between 18 years and 24 years. The research company also tipped the number of users aged 11 and younger to decline 9.3 per cent.

This is the first time eMarketer predicted a decline in the number of US Facebook users in these age groups.

Facebook attempted to attract users as young as six via a Messenger Kids app, which launched in December 2017 and subsequently faced some backlash from critics who accuse the social media giant of using the app as a way to get young children familiar with its products so they are more likely to sign up to them when they are old enough.

While Facebook is still adding monthly users overall, this is mainly in older age groups.

The number of total Facebook users in the US will reach 169.5 million in 2018, eMarketer forecast, an increase of just under 1 per cent from 2017.