Teens will keep leaving Facebook

Facebook hasn’t grown its 12- to 17- year- old user base in the USA since 2015, according to eMarketer. The firm says Facebook’s growth in this crucial demographic will remain negative through 2020.

Facebook struggles to retain teen users as more adults— many of them the parents of those teens — sign up. Adults have higher spending power, which gives Facebook more clout with advertisers. But the loss of teen users has sent brands focused on younger users toward other platforms.

Facebook owns Instagram, which remains one of the most popular social networking platforms for teen users and social media influencers.

Last August, eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson said, “Facebook is fortunate that it owns Instagram, which remains a strong platform for teens.” Williamson noted that although “usage of the main Facebook app is declining among teens, marketerswill still be able to reach them on Instagram.”

Instagramhit 500 million daily active users last September. The platform continues to battle Snap’s Snapchat, which has 187 million daily users, for the teen market.

Facebook recently launched the Messenger Kids app to attract younger users.

Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook. The Motley Fool has the following options: short March 2018 $ 200 calls on Facebook and long March 2018 $ 170 puts on Facebook.