Instagram was once so afraid of losing its teenage users, that they decided to do a lot of advertising to get that segment back.
This was revealed from a New York Post report based on anonymous sources and internal Instagram documents.
"If we fail to keep youth in the US then we will lose our network," Instagram wrote in the memo.
Facebook itself as the owner of Instagram received negative news recently. That is after a former product engineer named Frances Haugen leaked secret documents to the Wall Street Journal.
The document explains that researchers at Facebook have found that Instagram has a negative impact on teenagers. Especially teenage girls who can become depressed, have excessive anxiety, and various other problems due to using Instagram.
Haugen was even summoned by the US House of Representatives and in his testimony he clearly stated that the products offered by Facebook were harmful to children, weakened democracy, and others.
However, according to Facebook, the results of the report were taken out of context. According to them, the report actually shows that teens can benefit from using Instagram.
Since 2018, the majority of Instagram's marketing spending has been focused on attracting teenage users. For 2021, the funds they have prepared are 390 million, although according to a Facebook spokesperson, the information regarding the focus on teenagers is not correct.
"While it is not true that we focus all of our marketing funds on youth, we have repeatedly stated that teens are one of our most important communities because they are trendsetters," said a Facebook spokesperson.
But in the NYT report, focusing funds for marketing to certain age groups like Facebook does is not a common thing to do.