While the demise of Facebook is heralded with every new, hip social network (I was guilty of it myself in 2011), the reality is that Facebook will likely remain the undisputed king of social media for years to come. Facebook is in a unique situation. Worldwide, the percentage of users who use Facebook at least once a month is between 80 and 95 percent (excluding China). The chart below shows the top seven countries, which include mostly emerging markets like India, Brazil and Indonesia.
And, as the internet grows, Facebook grows. Incidentally, the markets with the most potential Facebook users are India and Indonesia, where the penetration rate of the internet is increasing rapidly. These two markets offer Facebook over 100 million potential users! Social commerce (buying directly via Facebook) is the domain that Facebook is currently looking to enter. That this can be a golden opportunity is evident from the following two developments.
More than 30 percent of Facebook users in the hotel email addresses United States consult Facebook during a purchasing process
8 out of 10 Facebook users in the United States say they shop online at least once a month
However, a big step still needs to be taken to get the general public to buy via Facebook. Because although social media are often consulted during a purchase process, the final purchase often still takes place in traditional web shops. Social media is the defense and the (attacking) midfield of your football team, Google is often the striker. They cannot do without each other and with only a striker on the field you will not become a champion. I think that buying directly via Facebook has so much commercial potential for the company. That is really going to be rolled out seriously.
image: GlobalWebIndex
5. (Mobile) ad-blocking
Chances are you've heard of or used ad-blocking software . Ad-blockers on laptops and PCs are slowly becoming commonplace. And ad-blocking services for our smartphones are booming in the West, while they're already particularly big in Asia.
The reason why we choose to block ads varies, some want to block ads for privacy reasons or simply because it frustrates them. The image below shows the reason why users of mobile ad-blocking software do this.