Buzzfeed Says People Spending Less Time On Facebook

According to Buzzfeed, people are spending less time on Facebook. During the media company’s earnings call last Tuesday, it pointed to a recurring theme in tech circles. Consumers are slowly moving away from Facebook.

RELATED: Facebook Changes Company Name To Meta

‘Audiences Spending Less Time On Facebook’

BuzzFeed CFO Felicia DellaFortuna delivered her remarks during the quarterly earnings call. “At this point in the quarter, we continue to see audiences spending less time on Facebook,” she said.

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The report comes after Facebook’s parent company Meta reported that their social media daily users went slightly down to 1.93.

This is Facebook’s quarterly decline since the platform’s inception. The loss of 500,000 users could mean that Facebook already saturated the market. With the number of users already peaked, adding more users just became more complicated.

Social Media Platform Crowding

Meta’s flagship application Facebook is now dealing with a more crowded social media space. Facebook also needs to contend with its sister company Instagram for online attention.

In addition, Facebook has to deal with the highly popular short video app TikTok. In fact, Facebook developed its Reels short-form video feature to compete with TikTok. 

Last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted the growing popularity of short-form video apps. “People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly,” he said. “And this is why our focus on Reels is so important over the long term.

Zuckerberg also said that their newfound focus is on a younger audience who prefers short videos as posts.

However, he warned of increased competition in this market. “We’re going to continue to see some pressure on impression growth in the near-term,” Zuckerberg added.

BuzzFeed Depends on Facebook For Traffic 

BuzzFeed, which largely focuses on its commercial segment, depends on Facebook for a large chunk of its shopping audience.

DellaFortuna said that the less time spent by users on Facebook “disproportionately impacted” BuzzFeed’s commerce revenues. As a result, DellaFortuna expects the trend to continue. 

Now, BuzzFeed will hedge its bets and go with multiple platforms. “We are leveraging our cross-platform distribution network to extend our commerce business to the faster-growing platforms,” she said.

This means reduced dependence on any single platform over the next few years, especially Facebook.  

Buzzfeed To Reorient Itself, Offer Voluntarily Layoffs

During its recent quarter, Buzzfeed reported a net income of $26 million last year on revenues of $398 million. This showed revenue growth of 24% compared to 2021.

However, the media company will reorient itself in order to increase profitability. It will do so by shrinking its news division and accepting voluntary layoffs.

On learning the news, investors rewarded the company with raising stock value by 2% yesterday. 

The online media company remains unprofitable but consistently won awards for its news stories. This includes the first Pulitzer it won last year.

As a result of BuzzFeed’s success, mainstream media outfits often poach their talents. Company spokesperson Matt Mittenthal said that around 35 staffers can volunteer for buyouts and leave.

However, he doesn’t expect all of them to take the offer.

Watch the Forbes Breaking News video reporting that Facebook loses daily active users for the first time – Here’s where they're going

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What do you think of people spending less time on Facebook? Do you think they’re moving to other platforms or are they ditching social media altogether?

Let us know what you think about shrinking time spent on Facebook. Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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