Meta Myths
<p><pre><code>  Myth 1: Users Are Deserting Facebook

  ..The problem with this narrative is that Meta is still adding
  users: the company is up to 2.93 billion Daily Active Users
  (DAUs), an increase of 50 million, and 3.71 billion Monthly
  Active Users (MAUs), an increase of 60 million..
</code></pre>
I&#x27;ve been wondering about this for a while now: who <i>are</i> these people who are still using Facebook every day? All of my family has reduced facebook usage over the last few years because fewer and fewer people post meaningful content. And as more friends and family leave facebook entirely, I&#x27;ve noticed more and more family members who don&#x27;t check their news feed at all -- they&#x27;ll just occasionally respond to Facebook Messages.<p>Is Meta combining DAU numbers between Instagram, Facebook, and Whatsapp? Because I&#x27;m sure those Whatsapp numbers go up and up, since it&#x27;s the default method of communication in a huge number of countries.<p>I know that my anecdotal experience isn&#x27;t necessarily reality. But it&#x27;s getting hard to ignore the fact that many friends and family have essentially abandoned Facebook and Instagram, to the point that these services aren&#x27;t being used meaningfully by my friends and family any more.<p>Maybe developing countries are still growing userbases? Or maybe Meta&#x27;s &quot;DAU&quot; definition just doesn&#x27;t capture the slippage from &quot;hooked on the news feed&quot; to &quot;responds to a message once per day&quot;?