Though many predict Facebook will suddenly collapse, Forrester’s Jessica Liu disagrees. Despite continuous bad press, Facebook has reported steady user and revenue growth, and advertisers will continue to go where users are – according to Forrester data, Facebook accounts for 75% of global spend market, which we forecast will reach $110B by 2020. 

In new research on the future of FacebookLiu explains that users and brands behaviors will not change overnight, per the data above – and also because regulators enact policy so slowly that Facebook can shore up its assets (like its continued collection of first-party data on billions of users) in the interim.  

But Facebook is far from in the clearwhile it’s short-term outlook may be fine, its push into private messaging to become the global version of China’s WeChat will be its undoing in the long-term. Social media user growth will essentially stall, pushing Facebook to add features to keep its users engaged. By then, regulators will clamp down on Facebook, limiting its growth options. 

For more information, read this blog post.