Lucy Nicholson/Reuters Sarah Buck, 23, (L) recruiter for messaging app Snapchat, talks to job seekers at a booth at TechFair LA, a technology job fair, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., January 26, 2017
- Snap shares were rising on news that it was taking younger users away from Facebook, according to the marketing firm eMarketer.
- Still, Facebook was adding total monthly users, though mostly from an older cohort.
- Snap is poised to add more users this year than ever given its new app redesign.
- Watch Snap's stock trade in real time here.
Snap shares were gaining ground after a report found that Facebook was losing younger users at a faster clip to Snapchat than previously expected.
Snap's stock was up 2.23% on Monday morning at $19.22 a share.
"While the social media platform was able to count on Instagram to retain that younger audience in the past, Snapchat may now be siphoning away more users," according to the eMarketer study.
Social media companies have closely monitored millennials, particularly teenagers, because they represent a large base of sustainable growth.
Yet Facebook is still popular among older age groups, adding monthly users overall. The New York-based marketing firm eMarketer believes Facebook will add around 1% more users in 2018, compared to the previous year.
However, the study found that Facebook will lose 9.3% of US Facebook users between ages 11 and younger. Meanwhile, the number of Facebook users ages 12 to 17 will decline by 5.6% and users aged 18 to 24 will fall by 5.8% in 2018. Facebook would lose up to 2 million users under the age of 24 this year, according to the eMarketer study.
Facebook's stock was up 0.82% at $177.55 per share ahead of Monday's opening bell.
"Snapchat could eventually experience more growth in older age groups, since it's redesigning its platform to be easier to use," eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson stated in a release. "The question will be whether younger users will still find Snapchat cool if more of their parents and grandparents are on it. That's the predicament Facebook is in."
Snapchat may see its user base grow by 9.3% to 86.5 million this year, eMarketer added.
Shares of Snap have been trading higher after the company reported blockbuster fourth-quarter earnings last week. Snap's stock was up 25.79% for the year.
Read more about why Snap impressed investors this quarter.
