Is Facebook on its way to becoming the next Yahoo? Once again, the fastest growing segment on the service is older users. Inside Facebook is reporting that “The fastest growing demographic on Facebook is still women over 55 – there are now nearly 1.5 million of them active on Facebook each month.”
Facebook audience growth - source: InsideFacebook.com
It makes sense that FB has saturated the younger demo, so growth should have to come from older demographics. I find it interesting that women are leading the charge, but I’d imagine it is because they are seeking to keep in touch with their children.
Here are some questions I have around how the greying of Facebook will change the service:
- What will this mean for how families communicate? I’d imagine that family conversations have different needs than than college buddies posting pictures at the keg party.
- Will kids want to shield their parents from some of their activities? Probably. How can this be achieved without having them leave Facebook for a more private service?
- Is this going to drive smart phone usage by older adults? As in, will they want to access FB from a mobile device?
- Will different FB apps become popular? I can’t imagine that too many adults want to give each other virtual drinks. By adults, I mean people in their 50′s. People like me definitely want to give each other virtual drinks.
- Advertising – This seems to continue to be FB’s preferred revenue model. Older users tend to be richer users. Will a different set of advertisers migrate to the system? I mean, will anyone start advertising on Facebook? Hard to say.
Would love readers’ opinions.
March 26th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
I just read today that Facebook is offering new "Private Groups" for families. They're private except for events which are still broadcast throughout your network. Here's the link to the post from ReadWriteWeb: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/facebook_int…
March 27th, 2009 at 10:16 am
This would explain why my parents each recently joined + added me as friends. A horrifying experience…
March 30th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Kids will definitely try to hide stuff from parents. It's pretty easy to do with all the privacy settings you can choose from. It also opens facebook up to a lot more revenue models. Older people do have the money and thats what companies can target more effectively.
April 24th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Facebook is a good, free solution for the sandwich generation who are worrying about their kids and their parents. Once they get their youngest kid off to college, that demographic begins to arrange care for their aging parents. Facebook lets them coordinate resources easily…