Facebook is losing its grip as a ‘Top 10’ app as BeReal and TikTok grow

According to an examination of iPhone App Store statistics, Facebook has had difficulty keeping its place among the Top 10 applications on the U.S. App Store this year. The large blue app from the internet giant has lost popularity in the Top Charts of the App Store as younger users choose to emerging social networking experiences like TikTok and, more recently, BeReal.

For instance, Facebook was only removed from the Top 10 list of free iPhone applications in the United States seven times last year. However, that number has already increased to 97 by 2022, suggesting that Facebook may be losing momentum as new applications compete for the top spots in the App Store charts.

In contrast, the Facebook app only dropped out of the top 10 applications in the App Store six times in the first half of 2021. However, according to information given to TechCrunch by app analytics company Sensor Tower, it has slipped out of this category a total of 59 times in the first half of 2022.

The company said that it even managed to skip the Top 10 for 37 days in a row in 2022, up from just two days in 2021.

This result was further reinforced by further research from data.ai (formerly App Annie), another supplier of App Store data, even though it was discovered that the app slipped out of the Top 10 on iPhone in the U.S. just four times in 2021 as opposed to 110 days thus far in 2022. It was discovered that this year, Facebook’s drop-off periods were mostly focused in April, May, and June. The app’s ranking dropped into the 30s on April 18 and went as low as No. 44 on April 21, making April Facebook’s poorest month so far. Notably, BeReal was ascending the App Store’s Top Charts at the moment, reaching the Top 5. BeReal is now the top non-gaming app on the American App Store.

It’s unclear if Facebook should be concerned about this trend to what degree.

Additionally, the corporation hasn’t regularly maintained a top-10 ranking in previous years. Additionally, being included in the Top 10 Apps is just one way to gauge an app’s performance; it only shows how well a firm can draw in new users, not how well it can sustain momentum with current ones. Facebook has not yet succumbed on that front. According to data.ai’s study as of the most recent quarter, it is still the most popular app by monthly active users.

That said, it is more troubling when Facebook is falling out of the Top 10 to newbies in social networking, such as the current No. 1 app BeReal, than if it were doing so because COVID-era requirements like Zoom have grown in popularity.

The corporation is worried about failing to attract a new generation of consumers, a subject that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has already discussed openly.

The business has been “retooling” its employees to make servicing young adults their north star rather than “optimising for the higher proportion of older people” using its applications, the executive informed investors last October. He acknowledged that it may take years, not months, to effect this kind of reform. Unmentioned was the question of whether the business would be effective in promoting Facebook to a younger audience, particularly at a time when it was placing enormous bets on the so-called metaverse.

But even before we saw the indicators reflected in the Top Charts, Meta was well aware of its adolescent difficulties.

As of March 2021, the “time spent” statistic for American teens on Facebook has decreased 16% year over year, according to internal figures compiled by Facebook, according to a Bloomberg story from last October. According to the statistics, young people in the U.S. spent 5% less time on Facebook, and the number of new adolescent signups also decreased. (The document was only one of hundreds made public by Facebook leaker Frances Haugen.)

Facebook lost daily active users for the first time ever in February 2022, according to the company’s report to investors, but its monthly active user base stayed stable. While the number of daily active users increased somewhat in the following quarters, the platform lost more monthly active users as a result of the Russian ban, an indication that the loss of a single market might stunt Facebook’s expansion.

The number of daily active users on Facebook has increased to 1.97 billion as of the most recent quarter from the recorded low of 1.929 billion in February.

Large statistics like this, together with the modest upward tick, may obscure Facebook’s problems. In the end, it’s still alive! The company’s arsenal also includes other tools outside its main application.

According to data.ai’s “State of Mobile” annual study, Meta-owned applications took the top four rankings in terms of monthly active users globally last year, with Facebook taking the top spot. Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger came behind it, placing TikTok at No. 6 far behind them. Facebook remains at the top this quarter, although it is now followed by Messenger, Amazon, and Instagram. TikTok is now ranked No. 5.

These numbers conceal, however, the fact that older individuals and heavy use in both developed and developing internet economies provide Meta’s apps—and Facebook in particular—a boost. India, for example, has a vast population and the most Facebook users overall. This makes it difficult to predict Facebook’s potential long-term direction. After all, the platforms of the future will be driven by the younger generation of social networking users.

It helps to keep a watch on the Top Charts of the App Store to predict where that market could be going. These graphs, together with the pace of instals and other elements, primarily provide an insight into the installation of new apps. As one of the biggest marketplaces for social networking applications and one that — maybe more importantly — contributes significantly to driving major profits, U.S. data is particularly vital to study.

Also Read: Real Instagram Story Views: How to Get Them in 2022

The downloads that power the Top Charts include those that involve users installing an app for the first time. This statistic can skew younger because it currently reflects the Gen Alpha demographic and the tail end of Gen Z, which includes age groups that may be purchasing their first smartphones, such as children, tweens, and teenagers. Facebook won’t be downloaded by enough of those individuals in 2022 for it to comfortably maintain its Top 10 ranking. The Top Charts are now dominated by more recent applications like TikTok, BeReal, and perennial Gen Z favourite Snapchat.

Other independent study indicates that Facebook may be losing its capacity to connect with a younger U.S. user base. According to a recent Pew Research Center research released this month, just 32% of American teenagers aged 13 to 17 reported using Facebook, down from 71% in a survey conducted in 2014-2015. The figures in the App Store, however, show what people are really doing, while Pew’s research are based on what users claim to be doing.

People seem to be looking for Facebook alternatives right now in the shape of cutting-edge social networking platforms like TikTok and Snapchat that are powered by recommendation algorithms or real-world connections.