Zuckerberg lays out new plan for Facebook as research says it lost millions of users
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg dropped a major bombshell Wednesday, saying he plans to shift the social media site to more private conversations rather than publicly shared content.
The news comes on the heels of a new report from Edison Research that found an estimated 15 million users in the U.S. have fled the platform over the last year compared to 2017.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FB | NO DATA AVAILABLE | - | - | - |
In a blog post, Zuckerberg wrote that over the last few years, he has been very focused on addressing the challenges his company has faced, which include major data breaches to rampant "fake news" that have been heavily played out in the media.
And, in conclusion, his new vision for the company's future will be built around "a privacy-focused messaging and social networking platform."
"There's a lot to do here, and we're committed to working openly and consulting with experts across society as we develop this," Zuckerberg wrote.
He added that the company has already seen that private messaging, ephemeral stories and small groups are "by far the fastest growing areas of online communication."
"Many people prefer the intimacy of communicating one-on-one or with just a few friends. People are more cautious of having a permanent record of what they've shared. And we all expect to be able to do things like payments privately and securely," he added.
Zuckerberg also noted that he understands that a lot of people will be and are still skeptical of the company's abiity to build a secure private-focused platform as it doesn't have a strong reputation in that area and because it's been historically focused on tools for more open sharing.
"But we've repeatedly shown that we can evolve to build the services that people really want, including in private messaging and stories," he noted.
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Facebook shares are up less than 1 percent on the news.