Zuckerberg: Users spending 50 million fewer hours a day on Facebook

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s shift to showing fewer videos has led to users spending 50 million fewer hours a day on the website.

“Already last quarter, we made changes to show fewer viral videos to make sure people’s time is well spent,” Zuckerberg said Wednesday as part of Facebook’s quarterly earnings report.

“In total, we made changes that reduced time spent on Facebook by roughly 50 million hours every day,” he said. “By focusing on meaningful connections, our community and business will be stronger over the long term.”

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The reduction comes after Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would begin showing less media content in its news feeds and instead push posts from users’ family and friends.

His announcement came after increased criticism over how Facebook and other social media platforms exploit human psychology to get people to spend as much time as possible on their apps.

The company’s critics included former high-level Facebook employees like Sean Parker and Chamath Palihapitiya.

Despite beating analyst expectations, Facebook’s stock still slid by 5 percent in after-hours trading following its earnings report. The company recorded $12.97 billion in revenue and $2.21 earnings per share over 2017.