Facebook was reported to have a teens problem after publishing its Q3 2013 results, and according to COO Sheryl Sandberg, there isn’t a problem.
In an interview with AllThingsD, Sandberg addressed the statement about teens.
So I think the reaction to that comment has been blown out of proportion. As we said on the earnings call, overall U.S. teen usage of Facebook remains stable. The vast majority of U.S. teens are on Facebook. And the majority of U.S. teens use Facebook almost every day.
However, Facebook is not oblivious to the fact that its not the only sheriff in town.
One of the challenges we face right now is that we’re a decade old. That means that we’re not the newest. And often, particularly in our space, newer things are shinier and cooler. And what Mark [Zuckerberg] has said and what we all believe is that we’re not trying to be the coolest. And we’re not trying to be the newest. We’re trying to be the most useful.
When asked about Snapchat, which Facebook reportedly tried acquiring for $3 billion, she understandably changed the subject.
So, what I would say on this is that we are the leader in a growing space. Social sharing, personal sharing, using your mobile device to share is exploding. We and other services are continuing to grow because of it.
Sandberg was also asked about News Feed ads, and some concerns that affected the social network’s stock price.
What David [Ebersman] was saying was that our focus going forward was not on increasing the number of ads in the News Feed, but in increasing the quality of those ads. That’s where we think there’s still room to grow.
Facebook removed physical gifts back in August, and Sandberg said it was because around 80 percent of all purchased gifts were gift cards.
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