Facebook was one of the first social networks, but it’s now a platform for parents and grandparents as young adults turn to photo and video apps like Instagram and TikTok. Meta, the company that owns Facebook, wants to change that. The Local tab shows users nearby events, community groups, and local items for sale, while the Explore tab recommends content based on the user’s interests.
While Facebook was originally focused on helping users connect with family and friends, its future lies in helping people expand their networks and make new connections. This is consistent with the way younger generations use the service, said Tom Alison, Meta’s head of Facebook. “We’re seeing young adults turn to Facebook when there’s a change in their lives. When they move to a new city, they use Marketplace to furnish their apartment. When they become parents, they join parenting groups,” Alison said at an event for content creators. .
At the event, Facebook announced two new tabs, called Local and Explore, which are currently being tested in select cities and markets, and which aggregate content found on the platform. Emphasizing events is not an entirely new strategy for the company. The company launched a standalone events app in 2016, then rebranded it a year later to focus on “local” businesses and events. It killed the app quietly in 2021. Meta takes a slightly different approach this time around. In addition to community event listings, the new “local” section will also feature Marketplace listings, Reels, and Facebook group posts. Local news – which Meta also announced earlier – is conspicuously absent from Meta’s announcement.
In addition to the “Local” tab, the company is also trying to make events more prominent on Facebook. Facebook will now provide personalized event recommendations in the form of weekly and weekend summaries, which will be pushed to users via in-app notifications. The company is also changing the way invitations to Facebook events are sent, so users can send invitations to their contacts via Instagram, SMS, and email.
Facebook groups, which Meta says are among the most used features by young adults, are also receiving attention in this update. Meta is experimenting with a “customizable group artificial intelligence” that allows admins to create a bot that can chat with members and answer questions based on posts shared in the group. Elsewhere in the app, Meta is starting to test an Instagram-like Explore section and a dedicated space for Reels within Facebook. On Messenger, Meta is adding a new “Communities” feature, a concept previously introduced on WhatsApp. Communities allows “small to medium-sized” groups to organize their conversations and interact in a way that more closely resembles a Facebook group. Members can create topic-based discussions and control who can join with built-in moderation and administration tools.
An increased focus on young adults will be key to attracting new users as Facebook faces huge competition for their attention. Short-form video app TikTok has 150 million users in the US and is extremely popular with Gen Z, prompting Meta to launch a copycat product called Reels in 2021. Young adults spend 60% of their time on Facebook watching videos, and more than half watch Reels daily. The company said it will also roll out an updated video tab in the coming weeks that brings together short, live and longer videos in one place.
Facebook’s dating feature, launched in 2019 and allowing users to browse suggested profiles, saw a 24% year-over-year increase in conversations among young adults in the US and Canada, the company said . At the event, a small booklet summarized the positioning of the platform for the future: “Not your mother’s (Facebook),” the title read.
Source: sg.hu
