Facebook Admits Teens Leaving Social Network

While Facebook reported stellar quarterly earnings this week, it also admitted that teens are leaving the social network.

"We did see a decrease in [teenage] daily users [during the quarter], especially younger teens,"  David Ebersman, Facebook chief financial officer, said during the company's third-quarter earnings call Wednesday.

Despite the decrease, he said that Facebook usage was still stable for most U.S. teens, according to CNN. Facebook earned $621 million in the third quarter, double the social network's profit year-over-year.

The news comes after Facebook and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg denied reports it was losing teens to other startups such as Whatsapp and Snapchat. Several reports in the last year have said that teens have left the site to share photos and videos, or even hang out on Twitter.

However, in Facebook's annual report in March, the social network seemed to believe a big risk factor for its business was teens looking elsewhere to connect, including using the photo-sharing app Instagram. (Luckily for Facebook, it bought Instagram for $1 billion in 2012.) It also lends credence to reports that Zuckerberg also offered $1 billion to acquire photo-sharing startup and teen staple Snapchat  -- because now Facebook desperately needs teen users.

 
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