The last couple of weeks have been rough for companies that own big digital hangouts. I have a lingering question: Are their popularity hiccups temporary or a sign of profound change in internet habits?
Facebook Inc posted the largest ever single-day market value loss for a US company after it gave a scary financial forecast and – most relevant for my purpose here – said the number of people surfing Facebook daily in the US and Canada flat-lined. Twitter Inc spooked investors with a slight decline in the number of monthly users and predicted the trend would continue into this fall. Snapchat’s parent company said the number of daily users dipped by about 3 million in the second quarter from the early part of 2018. Snap Inc also said its user pains would persist.