Facebook rounded out a difficult 2017 by losing daily active users (DAUs) for the first time ever in the US and Canada, the company’s most valuable markets.
The number of DAUs in the region stood at 185 million in the third quarter and dropped just over 0.5% to 184 million by the fourth.
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Facebook lost daily active users in valuable markets, but the Zuck says it’s all part of the plan
It’s unclear why the company took the hit. It may have to do with the way Russian actors targeted the platform to manipulate the 2016 US election, or Facebook may just have reached its cap in North America.
Despite the important regional dip, the company overall grew its DAUs 14% year-over-year to 1.4 billion in December 2017. But the growth was the lowest quarter-over-quarter increase in two years.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg has prepped for a fall in engagement, though, as the company looks to rework the way Facebook functions.
Last month, Zuckerberg announced that the platform will be focussing on content from friends and family, and businesses will be favoured depending on the meaningful social interactions they generate.
“I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down”
In a post, the CEO acknowledged the short-term negatives for business.
“I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some measures of engagement will go down,” he wrote. “But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable. And if we do the right thing, I believe that will be good for our community and our business over the long term too.”
