Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) announced on Friday that Facebook is attracting the highest number of young adults in three years, as the platform aims to shed its image as a hangout for an older generation.
Meta revealed that over 40 million U.S. and Canadian adults aged 18 to 29 are now daily users of Facebook, marking the company’s first-ever release of such demographic data. Facebook, founded by Mark Zuckerberg—who turned 40 last month—celebrated its 20th anniversary this year.
This growth reflects Meta’s efforts to recapture young adults’ attention, who have increasingly turned to the short video app TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance. A company spokesperson noted that Meta has seen “five quarters of healthy app usage growth” among young adults.
Initially launched in a Harvard University dorm in 2004, Facebook quickly expanded across U.S. college campuses and became the primary communication platform for a generation. The app reached 50 million users within its first three years and now boasts 3.2 billion users globally.
However, Facebook’s appeal to young users—key drivers of consumer trends and critical to advertisers—has diminished over time. According to a Pew Research Center survey last year, only about a third of U.S. teens reported using Facebook, a significant decline from surveys conducted in 2014 and 2015.
In contrast, the percentage of all U.S. adults using Facebook has remained relatively stable at around 68% since 2016, according to Pew.
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