This fall, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered 3 billion dollars to the owners of Snapchat, hoping to buy out the app from its creators. With the rise of social media on fire, competition between the apps is high, and Facebook is beginning to feel the pressure. A few years ago when the ever popular image sharing site Instagram took off, Facebook was faced with their first foreseeable competitor since Twitter. Instagram’s ability to allow users to share photos, edit pictures, and post captions caused Facebook some fear; it competed with the simple photo sharing option that Facebook offers. Zuckerberg’s solution was to buy Instagram, a decision that proved successful for the company.

With the introduction of Snapchat to the world, Facebook held a similar fear. This app, although incredibly different from Facebook, showed potential from the start with its creative ability to connect with people via pictures with limited existence time. The young creators of the app could have become billionaires from Zuckerberg’s offer, however, they declined the sale. This decision may seem outrageous, given that the app is currently making no revenue for the owners. However, the creators claimed that they are in no rush to begin advertising, and they refused to sell because they want their ideas for the app “done right”. With the introduction of Facebook as the owner, Snapchat would certainly be forced into possibly unwanted changes. Zuckerberg may not consider Snapchat itself a huge loss, but he definitely is concerned by the direction that social networking is taking, especially for his own company.

Recently, Facebook users have been dropping like flies. They have begun to kill their virtual lives, abandoning the site for good. Recent studies at the University of Vienna were conducted to examine the demographics of the quitters as well as the reasons for quitting the social networking site. They discovered that about 70% of quitters were men, leaving the women the main population of the site. They also found that the quitters were generally older, usually about 30, leaving the average Facebook user at 24. The main reason for people leaving the site is privacy issues. In general, people are becoming more aware of the spread of information through the web. If it is posted online, no matter how tight security settings are, someone is bound to be able to find it. With employers now using social networking sites to check out potential workers, people feel that their information is better to be left off the web. Not only that, but many people feel dissatisfied with the changes made to Facebook, such as the new layouts constantly being introduced as well as different interfaces. These, among other things, are the reasons for Facebook users to decide to deactivate.

Zuckerberg realizes that his population on his site is diminishing. In an effort to keep his company thriving, he clearly intends to buy out any potential competitor to his site. If he can create a monopoly of social networking apps, the loss of Facebook users will not be as damaging to the company itself. The future of Facebook may be questionable, but the aim of the company is undeniable and we can expect to see Zuckerberg fighting for his company continuously in the future.