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net

Why are Facebook users increasingly older?

45 90%
40 80%
35 70%
30 60%
25 50%
20 40%
15 30%
10 20%
5 10%
0 0%
4

4
9

+
-1

-2

-2

-3

-4

-5

-6
-1

-3

-4

-5

65
10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60
US Population Facebook users Penetration

The conclusion is that though new Facebook users are increasingly older in developed
economies, it is because the penetration amongst younger age groups is already very high
in these economies. Marketers now have a larger audience across age segments on the
facebook who they can target and engage.

The buzz is that Facebook users are now increasingly older. If this were true, then it has
several implications on not just the future of social networking sites but also on the
strategies adopted by marketing companies to design campaigns targeting certain
segments.
To explore the details Telenow.net conducted a study. As a part of the study Telenow.net
selected 5 countries across 5 continents – US, Italy, Ghana, India and Australia and
looked at the population in groups of 5 years segments as provided by United Nations.
Then we looked at Facebook users in each of these segments and computed the Facebook
users as a % of population for each of these segments. Telenow.net concluded that:

1) In developed economies US, Italy and Australia the penetration of Facebook

amongst age groups 15-19 and 20-24 was > 80% with penetration reaching as
high as ~100% for 15-19 age groups in Australia and Italy. So understandably any
growth in these countries in the number of Facebook users has to come from older
age groups.

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14 120.0%
12 100.0%
10
80.0%
8
60.0%
6
40.0%
4

2 20.0%

0 0.0%
4

4
4

+
-1

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

-5

-6
-2

-3

-4

65
10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60
Italy population Facebook users Penetration

3.5 100.0%
90.0%
3
80.0%
2.5 70.0%
2 60.0%
50.0%
1.5 40.0%
1 30.0%
20.0%
0.5
10.0%
0 0.0%
4

9
4

+
-1

-1

-2

-2

-3

-3

-4

-4

-5

-5

-6

65
10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

Australia population Facebook users Penetration

2) In developing economies of Ghana and India % of Facebook was between 0-5%

for age groups 15-19 and 20-24. In these countries access to internet is limiting
the penetration of social networking across all age segments. However, there is
still a strong possibility of growth in number of Facebook users to come from
younger age segments as the penetration is still low. It is at best inconclusive as to
who will drive growth in future.

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Telenow.net

3 7.0%

2.5 6.0%
5.0%
2
4.0%
1.5
3.0%
1
2.0%
0.5 1.0%

0 0.0%
9

9
4

+
-1

-2

-3

-3

-5

-5
-1

-2

-4

-4

-6

65
10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60
Ghana population Facebook users Penetration

140 2.5%
120
2.0%
100
80 1.5%

60 1.0%
40
0.5%
20
0 0.0%
4

4
4

+
-1

-1

-2

-2

-3

-3

-4

-4

-5

-5

-6

65
10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

60

India population Facebook users Penetration

The conclusion is that though new Facebook users are increasingly older in developed
economies, it is because the penetration amongst younger age groups is already very high
in these economies. Marketers now have a larger audience across age segments on the
Facebook who they can target to engage.

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