Yahoo Finance 'We've hit peak social': Reddit co-founder warns Facebook's days are numbered
The co-founder of the website known as the "front page of the internet" has warned the world is hitting "peak social" as social networks such as Facebook and Twitter near saturation point.
Alexis Ohanian, of messaging board site Reddit, said users were increasingly turning off big social networks in favour of private messaging apps.
"I really believe that we've hit ... peak social," Mr Ohanian said. "We've reached the ceiling."
Social networking sites like Facebook have struggled to add new users in important markets like North American and Europe, although Facebook is still growing rapidly in developing markets and has around 2.3 billion monthly users.
Speaking at Business Insider's Ignition conference, Mr Ohanian named Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as all having peaked. "All of them. Social media as we know it," he said.
Mr Ohanian founded Reddit in 2005 and now serves as its executive chairman. The message board site is split into forums, known as Subreddits, which Mr Ohanian said could provide a future for social media sites based around smaller groups.
However, Reddit has run into controversies over racist, offensive and graphic content on its site.
Some users, meanwhile, have criticised the site for taking down and banning some groups. Reddit largely relies on an army of volunteer moderators, rather than the thousands of paid workers employed by Facebook.
Mr Ohanian added that private apps such as Signal, Telegram, Discord and Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which allow users to hide their identity in encrypted conversations, were gaining popularity.
Mr Ohanian said: "What people seem to be clamoring for more and more now is community, and so whether that goes to private group chats — like your WhatsApp group, your Signal group — or new platforms that have emerged."
Social networking sites have been forced to take on disinformation on their sites as well as the growth of divisive content. A poll in the US earlier this year revealed the number of people who viewed Facebook unfavourably had doubled after a major data scandal rocked the company.
