Facebook’s daily user growth is slowing down according to the company’s latest figures. The firm’s newly released data also revealed that the company has missed its revenue forecasts.

Targets Out of Reach

Facebook’s user growth is slowing at the same time that the social media giant missed its revenue forecasts, said the company’s most recent results. In September, there was a daily average of 1.49 billion people using the social network. Though this is a healthy increase of 9 percent, the problem is that it fell well short of its prediction of 1.51billion.
At the same time, the company saw less favorable figures in some of its key markets. For instance, in the United States and Canada, growth remained flat. On the other hand, in Europe, the situation was dimmer as the average number of daily users fell.

Sales Rose but Fell Short

Similar to user growth, there was substantial gain in Facebook’s sales, though not as much as was hoped. The company said its sales increased by 33 percent to £10.7 billion ($13.7 billion). That said, its expectations had been higher after the previous quarter saw a 42 percent gain.
The social media company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, is struggling with a notable shift in its business. Moreover, it is finding slowed user growth is challenging within the markets holding its greatest profits.

Stalling Growth

The firm is developing new strategies to help keep existing users and draw new ones. Its goal is to encourage greater usage among the people who are already using its platforms. For instance, while developed markets are seeing reduced growth, the activity levels are rising as a result of the temporary “stories” and private messages.
That said, Facebook has yet to develop those increasingly popular features into a profitable advertising business to the same degree as its original Facebook network’s newsfeed.

“It Will Take Some Time”

Facebook CEO and co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has stated he feels confident that the social media giant’s advertising sales will catch up to the changing behaviors among its users. At the same time, he cautioned investors that next year would be another “significant investment” year. He said that while he is confident that the catch up will happen, “It will take some time.”