Facebook celebrates 15 years: despite the controversies, the social network is still powerful

1. An ultra-profitable world leader …

The numbers are telling and reveal the omnipotence of the company founded fifteen years ago today by Mark Zuckerberg. More than 2 billion users, a quarter of humanity, 55 billion dollars in turnover, 22 billion annual net profit. On the stock market, the world's largest social network is estimated at 480 billion. According to the magazine "Forbes", his boss-founder, who pays a salary of a symbolic dollar, has a personal fortune of 62 billion.

2 … Despite crises that multiply

But, for two years scandals have multiplied. Facebook officials have admitted to being too slow to measure the extent of attempts to manipulate the US presidential election attributed to Russia to favor Donald Trump. And so too slow to fight them.

Elected officials are also worried about the misinformation on the platform. And privacy advocates are clamoring for the increasingly massive collection of personal data for profit.

3. Young people move away but advertising is still there

Beyond, Facebook is also facing a growing disaffection of the youngest, in the United States in particular. According to the Pew Research Center, 51% of American teens aged 13 to 17 are on Facebook, compared to 72% on Instagram and 69% on Snapchat. However, if the first application belongs to Facebook, the second one escapes him. However, according to some analysts, the giant could also be challenged by a change in the way people use and interact with electronic devices. Analyst Josh Bernoff wonders for example if Facebook is preparing for the meteoric rise of smart speakers that offer for example Google or Amazon. "The future will become more and more the voice, and businesses and individuals interacting through artificial intelligence," he says.

But for now, advertising, which represents 98% of its turnover, is far from sulking the company. According to research firm eMarketer, Facebook's share in the digital advertising market is expected to reach 20.5% of the $ 327.28 billion that will be spent in 2019. What to answer these challenges.