Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg Says Teen Flight "Blown Out Of Proportion"
Facebook CFO David Ebersman shook things up when he casually mentioned in a recent earnings call that the social network was seeing a drop in daily use among teens, but it’s possible that the reason he was didn’t make a big deal about it is that there’s nothing to be alarmed about. That’s the stance Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, is taking, anyway.
In an interview with AllThingsD, Sandberg said that the reaction to Ebersman’s comment was far too strong. “As we said on the earnings call, overall U.S. teen usage of Facebook remains stable,” she added. “The vast majority of U.S. teens are on Facebook. And the majority of U.S. teens use Facebook almost every day.”
She also admitted, however, that because Facebook is a decade old, it’s not the shiniest and newest thing out there. For instance, SnapChat--which Facebook has been trying quite hard to purchase--is attracting new young users in droves, and part of that is surely the simple novelty of it.
SnapChat
Sandberg asserted that Facebook isn’t trying to be the coolest anymore--just the most useful--and she paints the increasingly competitive social networking market as healthy, growing, and mutually beneficial to all involved.
Although she may be completely right, some of this is likely so much corporate spin, an attempt to unring a bell that Ebersman sounded in the earnings call.
In an interview with AllThingsD, Sandberg said that the reaction to Ebersman’s comment was far too strong. “As we said on the earnings call, overall U.S. teen usage of Facebook remains stable,” she added. “The vast majority of U.S. teens are on Facebook. And the majority of U.S. teens use Facebook almost every day.”
She also admitted, however, that because Facebook is a decade old, it’s not the shiniest and newest thing out there. For instance, SnapChat--which Facebook has been trying quite hard to purchase--is attracting new young users in droves, and part of that is surely the simple novelty of it.
SnapChat
Sandberg asserted that Facebook isn’t trying to be the coolest anymore--just the most useful--and she paints the increasingly competitive social networking market as healthy, growing, and mutually beneficial to all involved.
Although she may be completely right, some of this is likely so much corporate spin, an attempt to unring a bell that Ebersman sounded in the earnings call.
