A Princeton University study has made the claim that Facebook will lose around 80% of its users over the next three years.
The document compared the rise of social media to that of infectious diseases, and says that around 952 million people will shut down their Facebook accounts over the next 36 months.
CNET senior editor Scott Stein, however, feels that Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t need to panic just yet, despite the fact that Facebook is losing its teenage audience to the likes of Snapchat and Whatsapp.
“I think there are some things that spread and most people have seen them,” explained Stein.
“There’s still a billion plus people that use Facebook and is it about getting new users or is it about eventually just growing the interaction with the users you have? You can’t sign up that many more people on the planet.”
Stein added that Facebook still needs to figure out how to play catch-up with a constantly evolving media landscape.
Facebook did not take the study lying down, firing back with a post called ‘Debunking Princeton,’ and the message that Princeton itself could disappear by the year 2021 if current trends continue.
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