TORONTO – Facebook is holding its spot as the most dominant social network on the web despite recent reports of major losses to its teen audience, according to the Global Web Index’s (GWI) quarterly report on global trends in social media.
The social networking giant topped the GWI’s list for account ownership and active users, 56 per cent of whom log in more than once a day to check their friends’ status updates.
The study is based on responses from 170,000 users in 32 countries.
The report also showed that Facebook had high usage of its official mobile apps, with 69 per cent of people using the mobile app and 37 per cent using the Facebook Messenger app.
But, the GWI notes that the extent of the social network’s decline has been “significantly over-exaggerated” in some reports.
According to its data, Facebook only saw a three per cent decrease in active usage last year.
The majority of the buzz surrounding Facebook’s usage decline comes from reports that the social network’s once dominant teen user base is moving away from the site in favour of more app-based social networks like Instagram and Snapchat.
READ MORE: Facebook may be losing its teen audience, but it’s thriving with adults
In December, a UK-based study called the Global Social Media Impact Study made headlines for saying that Facebook was “dead and buried” with 16- to 18-year-olds.
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Facebook CFO David Ebersman touched on the decline in teen usage during an earnings call in October 2013, stating Facebook “did see a decrease in daily users specifically among younger teens.”
The GWI report found that Facebook’s largest share of users falls under the 25- to 34-year-old range. In fact, the report found that the majority of social networks had the same outcome – only YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest were found to have the largest population of 16- to 24-year-olds.
The GWI Social report also found that Instagram is the fastest-growing social media site, with a 23 per cent increase in active users over the last year.
READ MORE: Study finds Facebook use may lead to unhappiness
Facebook purchased Instagram in 2012 for about $700 million.
Other newer or lesser-known social networks also saw great growth in 2013, according to the report.
Social news site Reddit saw a 13 per cent increase in active users and Pinterest saw a six per cent increase, as well as crowd-sourcing search engine site Quora.
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