In South Korea, Instagram thrives while Facebook declines

In South Korea, one of the world’s most wired countries, people can’t live without social networking services for everyday communication – and it's a country that global social notification service providers are watching closely to predict the shaping of future trends.

And here’s what Meta Platforms Inc., the US multinational tech conglomerate, should heed from Korea: Instagram is thriving and Facebook is declining.

Meta owns and operates several SNS and other online networking services, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp. Instagram is largely a photo and video-sharing SNS, whereas Facebook is text-based.

According to Wiseapp·Retail·Goods, a Seoul-based user behavior analysis company, the number of Instagram app users nearly doubled over the past five years while Facebook app users have dropped by a third.

As of the end of February, Korean Facebook app users reached 8.4 million, down 35% from 12.95 million at the end of February 2019, data from Wiseapp showed on Tuesday.

Over the same period, Instagram app users increased to 24.3 million from 12.41 million.

Based on data collected from Korean smartphone users, Wiseapp said the use of Facebook dropped the most among people in their teens and 20s.

The number of teenagers using Facebook fell 56% to 1.01 million from 2.33 million over the past five years. Facebook users in their 20s dropped 49% to 1.73 million from 3.43 million.

The only age group where the number of Facebook users remained little changed was those in their 50s – 1.35 million at end-February versus 1.34 million five years ago.

People in their 20s were the largest group using the Facebook app in 2019. But the trend has changed with users in their 40s now accounting for the lion’s share.

INSTAGRAM USERS RISE ACROSS THE BOARD

The Wiseapp survey showed Instagram app use has increased across all age groups.

The number of Instagram users in their 50s has risen 150% to 2.42 million from 970,000 people.

Those in their 40s increased by 142% to 5.29 million from 2.18 million while the number of Instagram users in their 20s grew 85% to 6.81 million from 3.68 million.

As of end-February, the SNS apps most used by Koreans were Instagram, followed by Naver Band, Naver Cafe, Facebook, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Kakao Story, Naver Blog, Daum Café and Threads.

Write to Seung-Woo Lee at leeswoo@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.