Instagram outshines Facebook’s flagship service

Even though Facebook is older and has a significantly larger user-base than any other social media platform – its growth is gradually being overshadowed by Instagram.

A recent survey conducted by the financial services firm Cowen indicates that the time spent on the Facebook app by its 1.52 billion daily active users is slowly diminishing while Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app is growing exponentially.

In fact, the quarterly survey by Cowen shows that in the first quarter of 2019, the average daily time spent on Facebook by US-based users dropped to 49 minutes from the 51 minutes that was recorded three months ago. Interestingly, the 2017 Q1 report shows Facebook users to be spending an average of 58 minutes on the app.

On the other hand, Instagram is gaining momentum steadily with an average usage rating of 34 minutes per day. That is up 3% year-on-year.

Average Daily Time Spent by Users on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and Pinterest, from Q1 2017 - Q1 2019

The report by Cowen is based on a survey of 2,500 participants and clearly signifies that the usage patterns on Facebook are decreasing primarily due to the scandalous 2018 it faced.

However, Facebook is deemed as the primary portal for social advertising and analysts at Cowen predict 15% annual growth in the company revenues until 2024.


Of course, this does not make Facebook at the bottom and the social media platform is expected to remain at the top for some more years undoubtedly.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is also not flustered by the decline. In fact, he made a statement in 2018 that the company aims to focus on the ‘time well spent’ on its platform and giving priority to ‘meaningful interactions’ even if it means the users spend less time on their platform.

Nevertheless, Instagram continues to grow despite the scandals faced by Facebook’s core app and Cowen anticipates it to experience an enhanced growth in the coming years too.

Read next: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram continue to be the most widely used social media platforms among U.S. adults
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