More so than any other social media outlet in history, Facebook has become a staple of the internet. However, in recent months the number of daily active users in the US and Canada has actually stalled. So, could we be witnessing the decline of Facebook?

Has Facebook Peaked?

Last week, Facebook posted its 2020 performance update [PDF].

In it, we learned that the social network has added almost 300 million more active users over the course of 2020. However, that growth entirely has come from outside of North America.

Facebook added 5 million daily active users in 2020, but that's while losing daily active users in the US and Canada throughout the year. Definitely not the sort of data you'd expect to see after a global pandemic has plagued everyone around the world, forcing everyone indoors.

A chart showing Facebook's average revenue per user

North America is Facebook's first and oldest market, so if this is a sign of what's to come, the platform is going to have to do something to make itself "essential" for people again.

Thankfully, there should be more than enough funds to do exactly that. In the US market, Facebook averaged $53 of revenue per user in the fourth quarter of 2020. That's well above any other region in the world.

A chart showing Facebook's growth in daily active users

Why Is Facebook Losing Daily Active Users?

It's unclear why less people are using Facebook on a daily basis. The platform has been around for 17 years, and has made many changes over the course of its lifespan to keep up with the trends across social media.

For instance, Snapchat and Facebook have been rivals since the Snapchat team declined CEO Mark Zuckerberg's buyout offer of $3 billion in 2013. The app that founded the disappearing post format would take off a year after that, and in response, Facebook added its own Stories in 2017.

Some more examples include how Facebook added Avatars in May 2020 to compete with Snapchat's Bitmojis, and the launch of Facebook Neighborhoods to rival community platform Nextdoor in October 2020.

But perhaps it's not that there's anything "wrong" or out of date with Facebook, but rather that other competition has emerged. According to App Annie, people spent more time using TikTok than they did Facebook in 2020.

Naturally, that hasn't gone unnoticed, as proven by the release of Collab, Facebook's collaborative music app, in December 2020.

Is Facebook Still a Part of Your Daily Routine?

We still live in a time where it's somewhat uncommon for an internet user to not have a Facebook account. But with the emergence of all sorts of new social media platforms, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone that hasn't at least considered using something else instead.

Which doesn't bode well for the longterm future of Facebook.