Young people are turning their backs on Facebook in favour of rival Snapchat, according to a new report.

Experts now predict Snapchat will overtake Facebook among the key 18- to 24-year-old demographic in the UK by the end of this year.

According to the latest report, more than 350,000 new users within this age range will flood to Snapchat, which is focused around ephemeral photography and Augmented Reality (AR) lens that distort users faces in images and videos.

If the report is accurate, this will take the number of UK-based Snapchat users within that age range to around 5 million – placing it ahead of Facebook for the first time.

The shift in the UK follows a global trend that has seen younger audiences shun Mark Zuckerberg's social network, which boasts 2.23 billion monthly users worldwide.

Earlier this year, a study from the Pew Research Centre revealed just 51 per cent of US individuals aged 13 to 17 say they use Facebook – a drastic plunge from the 71 per cent who claimed to use the social network a Pew report in 2015.

According to a separate study by Ampere Analysis, 44 per cent of Snapchat users worldwide are now aged 18 to 24 – compared to a mere 20 per cent on Facebook.

Young people are turning their backs on Facebook and opting for easier to use platforms such as Snapchat, a report has found. Experts are now predicting that Snapchat will overtake Facebook in popularity among UK 18- 24-year-olds by the end of the year (Stock)

Following the disastrous Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has seen its stock price and user numbers plummet.

Meanwhile, rival Snapchat has been gaining increased traction among younger demographics worldwide.

According to a new report from US-based market research company eMarketer, Snapchat is expected to grow its important 18-24-year-old demographic by more than 350,000 users in 2018 in the UK alone.

This will take the amount of Snapchat users within this age range to slightly under 5 million – placing it ahead of Facebook for the first time in the UK.

If the trend continues as predicted, 2018 will mark the second consecutive year Facebook has seen declining numbers among this pivotal younger user base.

The trendsetting group of Facebook users will drop to around 4.5 million by the end of the year – a staggering loss of 500,000 in two years. 

The figures spell more bad news for Mark Zuckerberg's social platform, which has increasingly seen its user base shift to an older demographic. 

Facebook has become increasingly popular with older users, as over-55s continue to join the social network in order to keep tabs on their families.  

Last year, Snapchat became more popular than Facebook for the 12- to 17-year-old demographic in the UK. 

According to a new report from US-based market research company eMarketer, Snapchat is expected to grow its important 18-24-year-old demographic by more than 350,000 users in 2018 in the UK alone - making it more popular than rival app Facebook

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal Facebook has seen its stock and user numbers plummet, while Snapchat has been gaining traction with younger demographics. 

This is the result of an emerging new market dubbed the 'Facebok nevers' – social media users who have never held an account with the Zuckerberg-owned site.

'These so-called Facebook-nevers are eating into Facebook's user growth significantly,' Bill Fisher, senior analyst at eMarketer told The Guardian.

'Many younger social network users are forgoing Facebook altogether in favour of more appealing mobile-first alternatives, such as Snapchat.'

'Facebook is still adding monthly users overall, but older age groups are mainly responsible for this,' says Fisher.  

When a 19-year-old Mark Zuckerberg founded the site back in 2004 and targeted it at fellow university students. As a result, Facebook was a refuge for the youth of the mid-noughties, however, this age group grew up at the same time as its founder.

In the wake of this graduating class of early-era millennials has been a dearth of young blood as the next generation resist the site.

WHY DO YOUNG PEOPLE PREFER SNAPCHAT?

Snapchat’s popularity with teens and young adults has grown significantly since the platform first launched in 2011.

It has been suggested that the instant messaging app’s range of creative and interactive features like filters, lenses and Bitmoji, are partially responsible for its success.

These let you add effects to images and create virtual avatars and have since been adopted by rival platforms.

However, Snapchat’s relative privacy and the impermanence of material shared compared with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram may be the crucial factor in its popularity among young people.

That's according to Joseph Philleo, a USC undergraduate student in mathematics, economics and machine learning and self-described 'Millennial tech adopter' who discussed his thoughts on Quora.

On Snapchat, all content is time-limited and can be sent directly to an individual or small group of friends.

This lets you control exactly who sees the pictures and videos you make and for how long.

As a result, users feel free to share awkward, embarrassing or unflattering selfies, safe in the knowledge that this won’t be visible forever, unlike the permanent posts on other platforms.

This leads to a more authentic user experience and is of benefit to everyone who uses the app, but it’s a particular attraction for younger people.

More mature internet users may feel comfortable and confident being themselves in any online forum.

Snapchat, through its closed groups and temporary sharing, provides a sense of security for teens and youngsters who are still finding their way in the world to be themselves. 

Overall user numbers for Facebook has been bolstered by older people signing up, however, these silver-surfers have a tendency to join digital trends a little late.

Facebook UK's fastest growing new users are aged 55 and older, as parents and grandparents use the platform to stay in touch with younger relatives and offspring.

Almost 430,000 new users aged 55 or over will join Facebook this year, taking the total number to 6.5 million on Facebook in the UK, the eMarketer report says.

More than a third (37 per cent) of Facebook's UK user base is now aged 45 or over, totalling 12 million of the 32.6 million people who use the platform.

Despite the success of recruiting older users to the site, Facebook will be aware that marketers and advertisers cherish the attention of younger users above all else.

They are considered essential to the survival of social media sites in the long term and is a major reason Facebook's sister site Instagram has been tackling Snapchat head on to maintain the youthful consumer interest.

In doing so, the Facebook-owned picture sharing app has imitated many of Snapchat's features, including stories, filters, disappearing messages and Bitmoji integration. 

According to estimates by eMarketer, Instagram will grow by almost 10 per cent (9.6 per cent) this year, to 19 million users.

Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, is expected to add about 170,000 users aged 12 to 17 this year – taking its total to 2.1 million.

It is also predicted to add 270,000 18 to 24-year-olds, to a total of 4.2 million.

'Facebook's Instagram purchase looks to have been a shrewd move in as much that it's picking up some of that younger user base it is losing,' says Mr Fisher. 

'But it's still struggling to hold onto the coattails of Snapchat among these cohorts.'

Earlier this year, figures from the Pew Research Centre found that Facebook is no longer the social media platform of choice for US-based users between the ages of 13-17. 

Instead, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat are the top choice for teens, drawing 85 percent, 72 percent and 69 percent of respondents, respectively.

The figures mark a dramatic increase from three years ago, when only about half of teens used Instagram and 41 percent said they used Snapchat.

HOW HAS FACEBOOK COPIED SNAPCHAT OVER THE YEARS?

March 2016 - Filters

One of the first signs Facebook was copying Snapchat was in March 2016 when it bought MSQRD, an app that overlays silly live filters to your selfies.

The app lets users apply filters to their faces - similar to Snapchat 'Lens' filters.

 

One of the first signs Facebook was copying Snapchat was in March 2016 when it bought MSQRD, an app that overlays silly live filters to your selfies. The app lets users apply filters to their faces (pictured right) - similar to Snapchat 'Lens' filters (pictured left)

April 2016 - QR codes 

In April of last year, Facebook added QR codes to profiles in Messenger. 

Snapchat uses QR codes to allow people to add other users without having to search.

December 2016 - Location-based filters and in-app camera

Facebook introduced custom location-based camera filters that overlay pictures and videos – similar to Snapchat's 'geo-filters'.

Users build 'frames' on any design platform, submit them to Facebook and then friends nearby will have access to the creations.

In the same month, a 'Messenger Camera' was designed to make it quicker to capture and share photos and videos without having to dip out of a conversations - a feature that already existed on Snapchat.

 

In December, Facebook introduced custom location-based camera filters (pictured right) that overlay pictures and videos – similar to Snapchat's 'geo-filters' (pictured left)

March 2017 - Stories

In March, Facebook introduced Facebook Stories along with two other new Snapchat-like features - Facebook Camera and Direct.

Facebook Stories highlights decorative content in a horizontal layout over News Feed that disappears in 24 hours - just like Snapchat Stories.

 

Facebook Stories (pictured right) highlights decorative content in a horizontal layout over News Feed that disappears in 24 hours - just like Snapchat Stories (pictured left)

The section in the app called 'Direct' appears to be very similar to Snapchat's feed for one-to-one group messaging.

The update encourages users to use Facebook's camera feature and also lets them put friends' stories at the top of their News Feed.

In the same month it also introduced 'Messenger Day', which lets user share photos and videos with illustrated filters and stickers that vanish in 24 hours - just like Snapchat Stories.

November 2017 - Streaks

In November, Facebook copied Snapchat by testing a new feature that encourages friends to send messages back and forth for consecutive days.

Like 'Snapstreaks' on Snapchat, Facebook Messenger 'Streaks' have emoji next to the name of anyone who users are regularly messaging.

According to Facebook, this will encourage users to 'keep your streak going'.  

In March, Facebook introduced 'Messenger Day', which lets user share photos and videos with illustrated filters and stickers that vanish in 24 hours - just like Snapchat Stories

January 2018 - Screenshots

In January, Instagram, the Facebook-owned app, began testing a feature that lets your followers know if you've taken a sneaky screenshot of their Story.

The Snapchat-inspired feature is expected to launch on the picture-sharing platform soon and is currently being trialled in Japan.

May 2018 - Bitmoji

As with Filters, Snaps, and Stories, Facebook revealed it is duplicating the Bitmoji feature used on Snapchat.

Within the code of Facebook's Android app, developers have found an unreleased functionality that lets users 'build personalized, illustrated versions of themselves for use as stickers in Messenger and comments.'

snapchat develops a new search  tool to help capture that selfie

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