Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is light years ahead of its social media rival, Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR).
Despite the wide gap between them, many analysts have always viewed the two companies as different animals. After all, Twitter was born native to mobile with 140-character limits and a heavy emphasis on instant response. Meanwhile, FB stock was initially forged through built-in games like FarmVille and plenty of user-tracking on desktops to help with advertising revenue.
But now, things have changed. And it could mean the death of Twitter altogether, as FB takes the fight to the smaller social media player on its home turf.
TWTR investors better not make the mistake of thinking themselves safe from the long arm of Facebook.
That’s because while Twitter has long been comfortable on mobile devices, Facebook is increasingly a mobile company that is in direct competition for users and their attention.
FB Stock – More Mobile
As of Q4 2015, FB stock reported 934 million mobile daily active users — that is, people who check in to Facebook every single day on their smartphones.
That’s almost triple the entirety of Twitter’s monthly user base, which hit 320 million total users according to recent TWTR earnings.
Another great metric: Facebook also reported that it had 823 million active users per month who exclusively access the platform on their mobile phones.
By the way, this is just FB and doesn’t acknowledge the more than 400 million people on Facebook product Instagram, which is pretty much exclusively mobile.
FB Stock – More Instant
Another important feature of the new Facebook is that the platform is getting more and more in touch with the flow of news and information as it happens.
Consider the tragic events in Belgium, where FB activated its Safety Check feature that allows users to let their friends and family know they are safe. That’s an incredibly valuable real-time service.
And late last year, Facebook helped sponsor one of the must-see debates among Republican Presidential candidates and pushed users to participate in live discussions on the event as it happened.
Twitter has long been the gold standard of where to discuss live events, from sport contests to award shows, but its larger social media rival is pushing in on that turf more and more with each passing day.
What can TWTR stock executives do?
Facebook is bigger and better capitalized. Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is splitting his time between his other venture, Square Inc (NYSE:SQ), and is still reeling from a rash of high-profile departures in January.
There may be a way for Twitter to innovate or fend off the competition, but that doesn’t seem likely.
The more likely scenario to me is that FB stock will continue to dominate, and TWTR will die a slow death.
Jeff Reeves is the editor of InvestorPlace.com and the author of The Frugal Investor’s Guide to Finding Great Stocks. Write him at editor@investorplace.com or follow him on Twitter via @JeffReevesIP. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
