Facebook’s “Cryptocurrency” Doesn’t Look Like It’s Winning Over the Public…
A number of surveys have indicated that most US and UK adults couldn’t care less about Facebook’s so-called cryptocurrency. Not only do they suggest that people won’t bother to use Libra but that those surveyed remain understandably sceptical of the social media company following recent scandals.
Some in the cryptocurrency space had lauded Facebook’s entry into the industry as a great boon for Bitcoin and other digital assets. However, if these early surveys are anything to go by, the penned 2020 launch for Libra might not be the great onboarding event many are prophesying it to be.
US and UK Seem Entirely Disinterested in Facebook’s Cryptocurrency Efforts
The latest survey suggesting a lack of interest in Facebook’s foray into the cryptocurrency industry was conducted by Viber. With Viber being a rival service to Facebook’s own WhatsApp social messaging application, you can understand that the results will be incredibly biased.
As reported by NeoWin, Viber asked 1,000 users from the UK and 1,000 from the US the same set of questions.
When asked if they would use the new cryptocurrency-of-sorts, just three percent of the US respondents said that they would. Meanwhile, 49 percent said that they would not trust Facebook at all.
Even fewer British Viber users would be willing to give Libra a go at just 1.4 percent and the same percent said that they did not trust the San Francisco company at all.
Although you would expect users of a rival service to bash a project like Libra at any given opportunity, the survey’s results are not unique. Earlier this week, a poll by CivicScience also indicated that the US public didn’t care about Facebook’s Libra project.
This time, the survey was put to 1,799 US adults. It found that 86 percent of respondents were “not at all interested” in the “cryptocurrency” and another 10 percent were unsure about it.
This time, even more respondents claimed to not trust the company “at all”. You can hardly blame the 77 percent of respondents either, particularly given the firm’s poor recent history of protecting users’ interests. Scandals such as Cambridge Analytical are surely still fresh in the memory of those asked. Such concerns have also recently been echoed by regulators:
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer @PhilipHammondUK explains why governments are so worried about Facebook's Libra $FB #btc #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/SYFggQVncw
— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) July 15, 2019
Although these initial survey results look bad for the social media company’s financial ambitions, they have so far focused only on potential users in two of the very richest nations on earth. NewsBTC is not aware of any surveys focusing exclusively on people in developing nations.
As detailed last month by the social media company, Facebook is hoping that the most transformative effect of its foray into the cryptocurrency industry is felt in nations with scant access to traditional banking infrastructure. It would be interesting to see how people living in less affluent parts of the world have received the firm’s plans to launch its own digital currency and if they think it will be useful in their lives.
Related Reading: Facebook Libra Inspires a Wave of New Online Scams
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Rick D., Khareem Sudlow