Snapchat is king among teens as Facebook declines in popularity, survey shows

Move over Instagram, Twitter and Facebook: When it comes to social platforms, Snapchat continues to rule among teens, according to a new Piper Jaffray survey.

The firm's "Taking Stock With Teens" biannual report received 10,000 responses for its fall 2016 edition, with the respondent's average age 16-years-old. It asked survey takers about fashion and beauty, restaurants and media and device preferences.

Eighty percent said they used Snapchat at least once per month and 35 percent said it was their favorite platform. Snapchat became the most popular app among the age group in last spring's survey, unseating Instagram.

Meanwhile, Facebook saw the largest decline in usage this time. While 60 percent of teens said they used it at least one a month earlier this year, only 52 percent said they were logging in monthly in the new survey. The rates were dragged down by most by the youngest survey takers. Facebook also decreased in popularity from 15 percent in the spring survey who said it was their favorite platform to 13 percent in the latest survey.

It's not all bad news for Facebook, however. Instagram increased in usage this year. About 74 percent said they used it at least monthly in the spring survey; during the fall survey, 79 percent said they did. It also increased in popularity 1 percent during the time frame.

The trends reflect the move to more video and image-based online media, especially among younger groups.

The survey also showed that Netflix (37 percent) was the most popular daily video service among teens, followed by YouTube (26 percent) then cable TV (25 percent). Piper Jaffray said it was the first time its survey had shown YouTube beating cable TV.

Google has touted that YouTube has had higher viewership numbers than cable since 2015. This year at its Digital Content NewFront presentation, an annual event held for advertisers, it said YouTube had more viewers on mobile alone than any broadcast or cable network. Notably, media buying agency IPG Mediabrands moved at least $250 million in ad spending from TV to YouTube this year to reflect the changing viewership patterns.

IPhone ownership among teens was at its highest ever with 74 percent saying they had the Apple device, and 79 percent saying they expected their next phone to be an iPhone. Only 12 percent of teens owned an Apple Watch, with 11 percent saying they wanted to buy one in the next six months.