Facebook drops 1 million users in North America

As Facebook works hard to try and change things so that "fake news" is harder to sneak by their censors, they also saw a decrease of 1 million users in North America in Q4 of 2017, going from 185 million daily users to 184 million daily users. The number of users isn't all that relevant as they've still got a massive user base, but it could be a signal that people are starting to find alternatives to get their social media fix. Facebook is playing it cool saying they were expecting a bit of decrease and that people's usage could go down but the time they do spend would be "more valuable". Usage numbers aside, Facebook did see their profits go up which should make the shareholders happy. The Verge has the full story.

Zuckerberg warned about the decreased usage earlier this month, saying it was an expected effect of the changes being made. “But I also expect the time you do spend on Facebook will be more valuable,” he wrote. “And if we do the right thing, I believe that will be good for our community and our business over the long term too.” Zuckerberg said changes started to be made in 2017, but that it will “take months” for it to be seen across all of the company’s products.

“In 2018, we’re focused on making sure Facebook isn’t just fun to use, but also good for people’s well-being and for society,” he said in a statement this afternoon. “We’re doing this by encouraging meaningful connections between people rather than passive consumption of content ... By focusing on meaningful connections, our community and business will be stronger over the long term.”