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Facebook Rolls Out Social Media App Lifestage for Teens

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Facebook Inc. has launched a new standalone social media app, Lifestage, exclusively for users under 21 years of age. Lifestage has been created by a 19-year old Facebook employee, Michael Sayman.

In a post, Sayman said, “Lifestage looks back at the days of Facebook from 2004 and explores what can be done if we went back and turned the crank all the way forward to 2016 with video-first.”

He further added, "Back in 2004, Facebook was all about 'who I am'. I could post my relationship status. I could share what my favourite music was. And it was all about expressing myself. Today as Facebook has grown into so much more, we see the opportunity to explore that concept of 'who I am' once again, but for Generation Z in 2016."

As per media reports, Lifestage boasts a video profile unlike the text one that Facebook currently has. Users don’t need a Facebook account but they will need to share information like their phone numbers as well the name of their school to get started with Lifestage. Moreover, if more than 20 students of a particular school sign up for Lifestage, other users belonging to the same school can “view” each other’s profiles. The company has a strong focus on the age factor. Anyone above 21 years will not be able to view any other profile except their own.

Though the app cannot guarantee the true identities of its users but it has equipped users to block/report people by a single swipe.

However, Lifestage is posing concerns for a lot of people. Media reports have labeled it as creepy and parents are worrying about the lack of privacy settings.

However, for Facebook, it is a measure aimed to contain the threat from Snapchat’s rising popularity. Teenagers have long been flocking to Snapchat from Facebook. As per Statista, Facebook has only 8% teenagers in its gigantic 1.7 billion user base whereas over 23% of Snapchat users are reportedly teenagers. Facebook had tried to buy Snapchat in 2014 but CEO Evan Spiegel had turned the offer down.

Lifestage underscores Facebook’s focus on videos. Online video is the most lucrative component of digital advertising. As video ads generate more revenues than its photo and text-based substitutes, Facebook is trying to incorporate more and more video oriented content to bring in more ad dollars. Facebook also added that an initial survey found that people reacted 10 times more to a live video than regular videos. 

The app is currently available only for iOS devices but there is no word on the Android version launch. Also, Facebook doesn’t have a good track record with standalone apps (remember, Poke, Slingshot, Moments, Camera etc). Given the not-so-encouraging initial response to Lifestage, it remains to be seen whether it proves to be another addition to its list of unsuccessful apps.

At present, Facebook sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Other tech stocks worth consideration include Nvidia Corp. (NVDA - Free Report) , MeetMe Inc and VeriSign Inc (VRSN - Free Report) . While Nvidia Corp sports the same rank as Facebook, MeetMe and VeriSign carry a Zacks Rank#2 (Buy).

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