Silver surfers force out younger Facebook users

LONDON - Facebook has witnessed a staggering increase in the number of users aged 55 and over signing up for the service, with total growth of 518 per cent in the last six month alone, as younger social networkers stage a mass exodus of the site, at a rate of 20 per cent.

Analytics company iStrategyLabs studied Facebook's Social Ads platform to discover that the website's general demographic has shifted dramatically since January, with 18 to 24 year olds no longer representing the majority.

Silver surfers force out younger Facebook users
by Dan Leahul, revolutionmagazine.com 08-Jul-09, 14:35

LONDON - Facebook has witnessed a staggering increase in the number of users aged 55 and over signing up for the service, with total growth of 518 per cent in the last six month alone, as younger social networkers stage a mass exodus of the site, at a rate of 20 per cent.

Analytics company iStrategyLabs studied Facebook's Social Ads platform to discover that the website's general demographic has shifted dramatically since January, with 18 to 24 year olds no longer representing the majority.
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In fact, more than half of Facebook's 72 million US users are either between the ages of 25 and 34 (25 per cent) or 35 and 54 (28 per cent) - with figures continuing to grow, and fast.

In the past six months, 18 to 24 year olds showed the slowest rate of growth, a lowly 5 per cent - compared to 25 to 34 (61 per cent) and 35 to 54 (190 per cent) and accounted for a just quarter of US users.
If the numbers can be trusted, Facebook simply isn't the young online portal it use to be. Merely five years old itself, the website, now invaded by web surfers verging on old age pensioner rights will have marketers thinking twice about their social networking budgets.
As Facebook continues to grow, an image of gender inequality begins to emerge, as females outnumber their male counterparts at a rate of 55/45.
Interestingly the study also found that the number of users classifying themselves as in 'High School' or 'College' has dropped dramatically, at a rate of 20 per cent. Which could come as a shock to chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, who initially launched the website to keep in touch with his college buddies.
However, the study does not classify whether these members are indeed leaving the site, or just failing to attribute their level of education on their profiles, or have simply graduated.
iStrategyLabs suggests a more ominous overture: "There have been rumours that these younger user groups are being alienated by their parents joining the service, and this data seems to prove it."

Source: Brand Republic July