Facebook to face enormous challenge of retaining users

With the social networking giant, Facebook, recently turning a decade old, its need to work harder to retain as well as engage more audience has become all the more crucial.

Co-author of "The New Killer Apps: How Large Companies Can Out-Innovate Start-Ups," Paul Carroll warned that Facebook would struggle to expand its brief beyond what it's currently doing.

According to the New York Post, CEO Mark Zuckerberg's brainchild needs to prove that it could continue to grow despite the possibility that it has already begun to saturate its most fertile marketplaces while facing stiff competition in key foreign centers.

However, Facebook's early dominance on the Internet's social networking zone is clearly diminishing with rivals like Twitter and LinkedIn fast taking charge.

An analyst for Janney Capital Markets, Tony Wible said that Facebook's biggest challenge is to keep its users engaged, adding that the company has set a high bar, and it has to think up new ways to hook people.

As more and more 'adults' are signing up for the social networking site, its teen audience is slowly turning its back and adopting fresher and more 'young' sites like Twitter.

Caroll stated that Facebook is losing its cool factor, which is evident from the declining interest among teens, the report added.