Facebook anniversary: ​​how the social network is holding up 20 years after its creation ?

Malgré une réputation entachée, Facebook reste le réseau social le plus utilisé pour s'informer. Christophe SIMON/AFP

Facebook is twenty years old. And despite controversies, accusations and increased competition from other platforms like TikTok, Mark Zuckerberg's creation continues to reign on social media. Considered old-fashioned and stuck in its time by younger generations, Facebook still remains present in the lives of social users, of whom there are three billion using it.

Used by Harvard students when it was launched in February 2004, Facebook has three billion users around the world twenty years later.

Twenty years of sharing

In two decades, the social network founded by Mark Zuckerberg has experienced ups and downs, from scandals and controversies to an Oscar-winning Hollywood adaptation. In 2024, Facebook remains one of the most popular social platforms, despite an outdated image, made outdated by the arrival of TikTok (among others).

According to the latest Digital Report from We are social, of the five billion active social media users, three billion have Facebook. In 2024, it will be the most used social network in the world and its user base has increased by 3% year-on-year, driven by strong growth in Southeast Asia. For comparison, Facebook has twice as many users as TikTok (1.562 billion) and is ahead of YouTube (2.5 billion), WhatsApp and Instagram (two billion each).

Despite everything, when we ask social users their favorite social platform, their response is more towards Instagram (for 16.5% of them). them) and WhatsApp (16.1%). Mark Zuckerberg's social network is cited in third place, tied with WeChat (12.8%), but ahead of TikTok, preferred by 7.4% of people. Facebook is also third in terms of time spent on the app. Between July 1 and September 30, 2023, Internet users spent an average of 19 hours 47 minutes per month. We are a long way from the 34 hours spent on TikTok or the 28 hours on YouTube.

In another sign of good health, “Facebook increased its global advertising reach by more than 200 million in the last twelve months, representing growth of 10.5% year-over-year”. quot;, notes the report.

Between controversies and the aftermath of Facebook

But in the realm of Facebook, not everything is rosy. In twenty years, Mark Zuckerberg's baby has gone through areas of turbulence: the Cambridge Analytica scandal, accusation of tax evasion and influence on elections, problem of moderation, disinformation… Not to mention the controversies affecting all social networks (danger to mental health, propagation of false information, protection of minors…).

Facebook has been facing increasing competition from other platforms for several years, which has earned it a reputation as an aging social network, particularly with the emergence of TikTok. To try to rejuvenate its image, Meta, the group that owns Facebook, has tried to improve its offering, by focusing, in particular, more of its efforts on video, through the introduction of Reels for example.

Meta has also decided to multiply its activities with other products, such as Instagram – launched in 2010 and under the umbrella of Meta since 2012 – which brings together today two billion users, WhatsApp, purchased in 2014 and whose development would be a priority in 2024, according to a study by YPulse, or Threads, launched in July 2023 (and last December in Europe).

If Facebook remains a social network that is always in demand, Meta has been working on its succession for several years. In 2012, just before Facebook's IPO, Mark Zuckerberg allegedly distributed to his employees a book he wrote, "Facebook was not originally created to be a company" ("Facebook was not originally created to be a business"). The book ends, according to a Wired article, with this sentence: "If we don't create the thing that kills Facebook, someone else will".