Facebook Records Highest Young Adult Use in Three Years

Meta Platforms says young adults are flocking to Facebook.

“Facebook is still for everyone, but in order to build for the next generation of social media consumers, we’ve made significant changes with young adults in mind,” the social media giant wrote in a blog post Friday (May 31).

“And with five quarters of healthy growth in young adult app usage in the US and Canada, over 40 million US/CA young adults are daily active users, and this number is the highest in three years,” the post continued.

As these young adults are making transitions like heading to college or getting their first apartment or job, Facebook says it has made changes to its core product to help them shop, find love or find work.

That has meant expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, with plans to add more advanced recommendation technology to the company’s “entire video ecosystem,” as well as its feed recommendations.

“We also made it easier for anyone to become a creator and earn money on Facebook,” the post said. “We introduced a simplified product called Professional Mode designed for people who want to post publicly and grow a following, and it’s grown to over 100 million daily active users in 18 months.”

In addition, Facebook says it has changed its payout model to pay creators based on how well their content performs on the platform, “simplifying how creators earn and expanding monetization opportunities to all formats — photos, videos and text.”

The news comes on the heels of reports that another social media platform, TikTok, had lowered the threshold to join its affiliate program from 5,000 followers to 1,000. As noted here in May, this is a move designed to let more creators make money by collecting commissions on the sales they generate when they post videos promoting products available in the TikTok Shop.

Meanwhile, recent PYMNTS Intelligence research finds that these platforms are targeting a generation that is saving more of their income, percentage-wise, than other age groups — while also dealing with fewer emergency expenses.

“This may be creating a false sense of security. The combination of being able to save more while dealing with less unexpected costs may paint a prettier picture than reality can support,” PYMNTS wrote last week.

“Most Gen Z consumers have yet to land well-paying jobs or established careers, so they earn less, and 6 in 10 live paycheck to paycheck. Should their safety net of shared rent be taken away, their resulting lack of spending power could leave them particularly vulnerable.”