In recent months, the media have reported many setbacks from Meta, Facebook’s parent company. This summer, the company suffered a drop in revenue for the first time in its history, and on Wednesday it announced a record layoff of 11,000 employees. But according to a recent study by digital marketing agency Ressac and polling firm Léger, that hasn’t stopped Facebook from remaining the most widely used social platform in the country.
In Canada, 83% of Internet users have a Facebook account, compared to 77% for Messenger or 57% for Instagram, these two platforms also being subsidiaries of Meta. In addition, 63% of Canadian Internet users also have a YouTube account, 37% for Twitter and 27% for TikTok.
More popular in Latin America, Europe and Africa, the WhatsApp messaging platform, which also belongs to Meta, is only used by 39% of Canadian Internet users, according to the same study.
According to Sylvain Martel, Vice-President Media, Partnerships and Strategic Development at Ressac, this survey carried out among 3,000 Canadians is also the most comprehensive portrait of the consumption of social platforms in the country “for years “.
Young people abandon Facebook
However, the undeniable popularity of Facebook in Quebec is dwindling among young people. Among Internet users who have a Facebook account, 73% of 35 to 55 year olds use the platform daily, compared to 56% among 16 to 24 year olds.
In addition, 91% of Internet users aged 16 to 24 have a YouTube account, 85% have an Instagram account, but only 79% have a Facebook account.
Nadia Seraiocco, lecturer and doctoral student at the School of Media at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), a specialist in social networks, believes that Facebook marked “a stroke of genius” by acquiring Instagram in 2017. “Young people have been moving from Facebook to Instagram and, more recently, TikTok for more than five years. You see more of a shift in language and youth-specific subcultures on Instagram,” she says.
Quebec, more “conventional”
“The famous concept of the two solitudes is also very real in the world of social networks”, launched Pablo Stevenson, president and CEO of Ressac, in a webinar where he presented the results of the report on Thursday. “On the social platforms Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Twitter and Reddit, Quebec is less present compared to the rest of Canada”, indicates the document.
Mr. Stevenson maintains that Quebecers consume more “conventional” platforms, especially Facebook and Messenger from Meta. The study shows that 87% of Quebecers use Messenger, compared to 73% elsewhere in Canada. On the other hand, 47% of Canadians outside Quebec use WhatsApp, while this proportion drops to 22% in Quebec.
“Quebec likes Facebook because of the linguistic bubble that is created there when we use the platform, explains Nadia Seraiocco. From the moment you register on Facebook in French and you are geolocated in Quebec, you mainly see French-speaking content from here, unlike Twitter, for example, which makes no linguistic or geographical distinction. »
Mr. Martel adds that there could be cultural particularities in the relationship of Quebecers to technology: “I worked for Facebook a few years ago in Quebec, and I realized that there is always a some latency in the adoption of new technologies here. It was the same with the adoption of mobile devices or video consumption habits. This phenomenon partly explains our figures. »
TikTok, less popular than expected?
“TikTok is on everyone’s lips at the moment, but does not dethrone the more traditional platforms, both in Quebec and in Canada, adds Mr. Martel. Even if the network is growing rapidly among 16 to 24 year olds, and despite all the visibility it obtains, it was an important revelation for us to see that on a daily basis, in 2023, it is far from being the most important platform for advertisers. »
Ms. Seraiocco is also not convinced, for the moment, of the potential of TikTok: “There is more and more talk about the harmful effects of TikTok. The fact that it is a Chinese platform puts a barrier to them. Their incomes are also falling. »
Very satisfied with this first study in collaboration with Léger – which acquired Ressac in the fall of 2021 – Mr. Martel explains that his agency will now publish such data on the consumption of social platforms in Canada each year.