What Does The Future Hold For Facebook After Seeing Its Stock Plunge? | Social Media

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Is it possible that the growth of Facebook may be over? At the end of June 2018, the social media giant saw its value drop $119 billion in a single day, while Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth dropped $15.4 billion. The 19% loss was a result of Facebook announcing that its user base and revenue grew slower than normal in Q2.

While Facebook seems to be the preferred platform for social media users, it is coming up short in gaining new membership? Is the reign of Facebook over? Or, does it have a few more tricks up its sleeve?

Below, 15 members of Forbes Technology Council weigh in the future of social media giant and what changes Facebook should consider to remain relevant in the fast-changing social media landscape. Here’s what they had to say:

1. Increased Focus On Security And Operations

Following GDPR, and with the upcoming legislation from California, Facebook will likely spend more on security and operations in the short term, so their profits will drop. Growth will flatten out given the macro allergy to how users see Facebook treating their data (especially in risk-averse EU). Long term, it’s harder to predict, but if Facebook can demonstrate a commitment to security, users will reward them, and it should continue to grow as a platform. – Jacek Materna, Assembla

2. Instagram As Facebook’s Future Growth Area

Having advertised on social media for close to 10 years, I’ve personally seen the shifts in engagement numbers between Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Currently, I’m getting the greatest results for both paid and organic efforts with Instagram. I see Facebook’s growth coming from Instagram and the acquisition of the “next Instagram” versus refinement of the core Facebook site. – Tim Maliyil, AlertBoot

3. Bouncing Back And Here To Stay

I think Facebook is here to stay. So many people have used it as a repository for their images and videos that they can’t get rid of it completely even if they wanted to. Every business faces ups and downs and inaccurate projections. This doesn’t look like the end to me. After all, we’re talking about a company with more data insights available to it than anything else. It’s shown it can evolve, and I think the company’s going to bounce back. – Arnie Gordon, Arlyn Scales

4. A Quest For Regaining Trust

I believe the biggest challenge to future success for both Facebook and Google are themselves. Similar to semi-monopolies in other industries, building trust with legislators and clients is the only way to not get broken apart by competition laws. This can be done in several ways. One way could be to break themselves up into smaller entities. Introducing Alphabet made this possible for Google. – Jessica Nordlander, Greenbyte

5. A Significant Reinvention

Facebook is a fashion brand and is struggling with becoming out of fashion. It is not cool, not new and is getting boring. The company is huge, and huge cannot grow fast forever, so it is in a very significant crisis. If it does not remake itself, it will struggle to keep a large audience. – Jeff Bell, LegalShield

6. Owning Virtually All Internet Users

The smartest thing Facebook does is strategic acquisitions. If you just look at users on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, Zuckerberg’s company owns pretty much all internet users. By no means am I saying that Facebook itself has no future. Stagnant or negative user growth, which was the major concern of investors, has more to do with Facebook reaching saturation level and deleting fake accounts. Having said all this, I think the future holds good times for the social media giant. – Vikram Joshi, pulsd

7. Becoming A Legacy Social Network

I predict that within the next three years, Facebook will subside as a web-based platform and fully embrace its mobile counterpart. I myself have decreased my Facebook usage by 80% on its web platform and nearly 100% on its mobile app. Its biggest issue is censorship. The very thing that Facebook fought for will, ironically, be its undoing: free speech. Simply put, it’s just not fun anymore. – Jeremy Merrell Williams, Vyudu Inc.

8. Inevitable Death As People’s Preferences Shift

Facebook won’t last. It’s the nature of what it is. People and technology evolve. The constant is that people want to interact with each other. That won’t change. But how they do it, that will evolve. Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook…people are fickle and will find new outlets to satisfy the same need. – Brent Chapman, RoundPoint Mortgage Servicing Corporation

9. Higher Revenue Leveraging Instagram, WhatsApp

The investments the company is making to filter out fake news are an incredible moat for others trying to get into the social networking game, and Instagram continues to eat market share while Telegram and others are growing far less slowly with far less engagement. Let’s also consider that Facebook could raise ad prices 25% and not lose more than 5% of its advertisers. And it will soon start monetizing WhatsApp. – John Sung Kim, Fingrprint.io

10. Censorship, Commercialization Driving Users Away

The fundamental allure of Facebook is the perception of anonymous or private communication. As it introduces more paid content and user control, users view it as censorship. The result is the lateral migration of users away from Facebook to other “private” apps. Commercialization, selling data and limiting speech — even unpopular speech — is contrary to its core utility and popularity. – Wayne Lonstein, VFT Solutions, Inc.

11. Partnerships To Maintain Profitability

Facebook is the dominant network in interconnecting individuals, personally. Just like LinkedIn, Facebook is over the hurdle of adoption. This equates to slower innovation and a realization it cannot remain profitable on its own. Facebook’s negative press has little to no long-term effect on its financial status. It will remain the dominant player, though it will need a profitable parent. – Tom Roberto, Core Technology Solutions

12. Enhanced Value To Advertisers

Facebook’s outlook is contingent on its appeal to advertisers, so the apparent decline in consumer popularity makes the company vulnerable. To minimize its exposure, the company needs to add value elsewhere. It could follow Amazon and extend ad solutions beyond its walls, but there’s no guarantee for success given that this will invite concern and scrutiny over how they plan to use their massive database. – Kerry Bianchi, Visto

13. Increased Focus On User Happiness

Facebook has been learning the hard way over the years that when people feel that their personal information is being taken advantage of, their time is wasted or that Facebook does not have their best interests in mind, they are more likely to leave. As the company realizes that user happiness is in its best long-term interests, Facebook is likely to focus on it as a key metric to optimize. – David Isaac Murray, Doctor.com

14. Exploration Of Virtual Reality

I think Mark Zuckerberg sees the future of social media heading in the way of virtual reality, which is why Facebook acquired Oculus VR, one of the largest manufacturers of virtual reality glasses. Social media is about connecting with people digitally from all over the world, and what better way to connect, other than in real life, than via VR. – Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster

15. Ability To Anticipate New Markets

Once you hit billions of users, growth metrics shift. As more people come online, more users will join, but that doesn’t automatically increase revenue. To do that, Facebook needs to anticipate new markets. The Instagram acquisition was a win because it had captured younger users. Will Facebook be able to continue successfully acquiring new markets like this? If not, irrelevancy is inevitable. – Jason Cohen, WP Engine

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