Don't Dismiss Social Media Companies' Growing Pains
Self-inflicted or not, user strains for Facebook, Twitter and Snap may be here to stay.
Social anxiety.
Photographer: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images
The last couple of weeks have been rough for companies that own big digital hangouts. I have a lingering question: Are their popularity hiccups temporary or a sign of profound change in internet habits?
Facebook Inc. posted the largest ever single-day market value loss for a U.S. company after it gave a scary financial forecast and — most relevant for my purpose here — said the number of people surfing Facebook daily in the U.S. and Canada flat-lined. Twitter Inc. spooked investors with a slight decline in the number of monthly users and predicted the trend would continue into this fall. Snapchat’s parent company said the number of daily users dipped by about 3 million in the second quarter from the early part of 2018. Snap Inc. also said its user pains would persist.