Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has hinted at a significant revamp of Facebook, teasing a "return to OG Facebook" in a bid to appeal to younger users. The move comes as the social media giant struggles to retain its relevance among Gen Z, with declining interest and usage among the younger demographic.

Zuckerberg made the remarks during Meta's Q4 earnings call with investors, stating that the company plans to invest time and resources into revamping Facebook to make it more "culturally influential." While details of the changes remain scarce, Zuckerberg hinted that the revamp would involve a shift away from maximizing business results in the near term, suggesting that revenues may take a hit.

The need for a revamp is clear, with studies showing that younger users are increasingly abandoning Facebook in favor of other social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat. According to a study by eMarketer, U.S. Gen Z users aged 18-24 spend significantly more time on TikTok than on Facebook, with the latter ranking fourth in terms of time spent among the younger demographic.

Furthermore, a Pew Research survey found that Facebook usage among U.S. teens aged 13-17 has plummeted from 71% in 2014-2015 to just 33% in 2024. This decline has significant implications for Meta, which relies heavily on its core adult user base that continues to age.

Meta has attempted to address these challenges in the past, launching a Gen Z-focused redesign of Facebook in October 2024 that emphasized local community information, videos, and Facebook Groups. However, the company's ability to compete with TikTok, which has become the preferred app among Gen Z, remains uncertain.

In fact, when TikTok was briefly banned in the U.S., young users turned to alternative apps like RedNote instead of returning to Meta's platform. This suggests that Facebook may struggle to regain its appeal among younger users, even with a revamp.

Meta has also experimented with other services, such as online dating, to attract new users, but these efforts have yielded little success. Meanwhile, new social networks are emerging on the open social web, powered by protocols like ActivityPub and AT Protocol, which allow users to take back control over their data and social connections from centralized, billionaire-controlled platforms.

As these alternative networks grow, they will increasingly compete with Meta's efforts to revamp Facebook. The company's decision to shift focus away from maximizing business results in the near term may be a necessary step to ensure its long-term survival, but it remains to be seen whether a "return to OG Facebook" will be enough to stem the decline of its younger user base.

It's worth noting that Meta has been working to shield investors from Facebook's decline for years, introducing new metrics like family daily active people and family monthly active people in 2019. The company later eliminated daily active and monthly active users in its quarterly reports in favor of its family of apps' metrics, a move that may have been intended to hide Facebook's decline within Meta's larger "family" group of apps.

As Meta navigates this critical juncture, one thing is clear: the company must adapt to changing user preferences and behaviors if it hopes to remain relevant in the ever-evolving social media landscape.