Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than three billion monthly active users. Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. In the third quarter of 2023, Facebook reported around four billion monthly core Family product users. The United States and China account for the most high-profile social platforms Most top ranked social networks with more than 100 million users originated in the United States, but services like Chinese social networks WeChat, QQ or video sharing app Douyin have also garnered mainstream appeal in their respective regions due to local context and content. Douyin’s popularity has led to the platform releasing an international version of its network: a little app called TikTok. How many people use social media? The leading social networks are usually available in multiple languages and enable users to connect with friends or people across geographical, political, or economic borders. In 2025, social networking sites are estimated to reach 5.42 billion users and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction in previously underserved markets.

Despite a tumultuous 2018, Facebook is still the top social network in the United States, with 169.76 million mobile users accessing the Facebook app in September 2019. The company’s other properties Instagram and Facebook Messenger ranked second and third with 121 and 106 million users respectively. Cambridge Analytica scandal 2018 The biggest social media company in the world had a difficult 2018. The platform has long been accused of enabling the spread of fake news during the 2016 election and beyond. One of the first and biggest negative Facebook stories of 2018 was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which unfolded from March 2018. The Guardian, The Observer, and The New York Times simultaneously reported on political data firm Cambridge Analytica harvesting data of millions of Facebook users worldwide without their knowledge before the 2016 election, which led to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg having to testify before Congress in April 2018. Facebook usage behavior changes Due to the revelations about Facebook and the company’s treatment of private user data, many U.S. users are planning to use the social network much less and to be much more careful about what they post . During an April 2018 survey, only 20 percent of respondents stated that their Facebook usage has not changed, and they were planning on continuing to use the social platform as much as they always had in the past.

In March 2025, ******** accounted for ** percent of all social media site visits in the United States, confirming its position as the leading social media website by far. Other social media platforms, despite their popularity, had to make do with smaller shares of visits across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices combined. ********* ranked second with ***** percent of all U.S. social media site visits, while X (previously Twitter) accounted for ***** percent of the total visits in the country. Additionally, the U.S. is home to the third largest social media audience worldwide. Facebook: mobile vs desktop usage At the beginning of 2022, around ** percent of Facebook users across the globe were using the platform’s social networking services exclusively via mobile phone, while only *** percent reported using their desktop or laptop devices. In September 2022, three Facebook Inc. products occupied some of the leading positions as most downloaded social networking apps on the Apple App Store in the United States. WhatsApp’s messaging platform ranked second with more than *** million downloads, while Facebook and the instant-messaging service Messenger followed ranking third and fifth with *** million and **** million downloads respectively. Social media evolution Between 2012 and 2024, the daily time spent on social networks worldwide experienced an almost constant increase, with users reaching an average of *** minutes per day in 2023, with a decrease to *** daily minutes of engagement in 2024. However, users’ favorite platforms have changed since 2019, and the power balance appears to be shifting further from Facebook’s market dominance. Not only Facebook’s user growth rate is estimated to slow down in the next years, but users belonging to Generation Z appear to prefer video-first social platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.

As of January 2023, Instagram and Facebook were considered the most effective social media platforms for building active communities - each platform was chosen by ** percent of social media marketers surveyed worldwide. YouTube followed, with ** percent of respondents considering it effective to build an online community.

According to a survey conducted in March 2023 in Finland, Facebook was the most popular social media platform, with ** percent of the online population accessing the service. Instagram was also widely used, with a reach of ** percent. Jodel, an app that connects people with their local communities, was used by around one in ten internet users in Finland.

In 2022, Instagram was the world's leading social media app, with *** million downloads WhatsApp ranked second with *** million downloads, while Telegram surpassed the remaining mobile versions of Meta-owned social media platforms Facebook and Messenger. Newcomer BeReal, a photo-sharing social media app launched in 2020, entered the ranking in tenth position with over ** million global downloads during the examined year.

In 2023, adults in the United States spent a total of 5.2 billion minutes on Facebook per day, making the social network the most popular platform in terms of daily user engagement. However, this is set to change as TikTok is projected to overtake the blue giant in 2025 as Facebook's daily usage time is projected to decline by then.

This industry includes social networking website publishers and developers. The industry does not include companies that predominantly develop blogs, games, internet content, messaging services, online dating websites, online recruitment websites, online forums and online videos.

The messaging app LINE was used by **** percent of internet users in Japan during the third quarter of 2024. LINE was the most used social media service, ahead of X, Instagram, and TikTok.

During a 2025 global survey, approximately ** percent of responding business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers said Facebook was the most important social media platform. Among business-to-business (B2B) professionals, LinkedIn ranked first, selected by ** percent. According to the same study, YouTube and LinkedIn were the social media in which most global marketers planned to increase their investments throughout that year.

In 2023, Instagram was projected to generate an estimated 23 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in the United States. The photo sharing app’s revenue is set increase to 29 billion U.S. dollars in 2025. Instagram as Facebook revenue driver Initially released in 2010 and quickly acquired by Facebook in 2012 for one billion U.S. dollars, Instagram has been in the public eye since its early days. Instagram’s monthly active users grew from a mere 90 million in January 2013 to over two billion MAU in December 2021 and the platform not showing any signs of slowing down. Apart from ongoing user growth, Instagram is also one of the most popular social media platforms used by marketers worldwide, second only to Facebook. Despite the rapid growth of Instagram under Facebook’s ownership and cross-platform promotion, not everything has been smooth sailing under the blue flag. In September 2018, founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced their resignation amidst reports of culture and product clashes between Instagram and its parent company. Facebook was quick to appoint a new CEO, and under former Facebook News Feed product manager Adam Mosseri the social network has been trying to make the most of Instagram’s ad potential. In late June 2019, Instagram launched ads in its Explore section. The platform already allowed ads in the regular feed and Stories.

In August 2025, X, formerly known as Twitter, held a market share of around 34.83 percent in Hong Kong's social media scene in terms of pageviews across all devices, followed by Facebook and YouTube. The American social news and discussion website Reddit has gained traction since the anti-government protests in the city in 2020. Facebook is losing ground A few years before 2017, Facebook controlled over 80 percent of the social media arena in Hong Kong. The drastic change started in 2018, when the networking site lost nearly 11 percentage points and another 19 percentage points in the following year. For many Gen Z and Millennials in the financial hub, Instagram became the favorite social media platform and YouTube was used more often than Facebook. Facebook was still the second place to go after Instagram for product research, it has been losing its appeal among young users and advertisers. Platforms claiming the new spots When it came to advertising audience size, X took the lead. YouTube came in second, however, its ad reach in Hong Kong was among the lowest in the Asia-Pacific region. In comparison, the fourth placeholder Instagram has been picking up steam, reaching 4.14 percent of internet users in Hong Kong. However, the biggest industry threat was TikTok, the most downloaded social media app in Hong Kong as of the time of writing. TikTok’s rising popularity among teenage users may probably change the game of video consumption.

Among the most popular social media platforms, Instagram is the one that consumers use the most when searching for products to purchase, according to a 2025 survey carried out in Brazil. Around ** percent of shoppers use the platform for this purpose, followed by ** percent who use Youtube. Facebook came in third with a little over ** percent.

As of January 2025, Facebook accounted for around ** percent of the social media market across Asia. Comparatively, Instagram accounted for about ** percent of the social media market in Asia. Meta Platforms, Inc Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is a global technology conglomerate that owns a vast social media portfolio, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Facebook remains one of the world’s most popular social networks, connecting users for sharing content and building communities. Instagram focuses on photo and video sharing, including features like Stories and Reels. In 2024, Meta’s annual revenue reached ***** billion U.S. dollars, with most of its revenue coming from advertising. Meta generated approximately *** billion U.S. dollars in revenue from advertisements in that year. Meta’s market revenue and user base in APAC In 2024, Meta’s revenue from the Asia-Pacific region amounted to nearly ** billion U.S. dollars. The growing mobile-first internet user base in Asia continues to drive engagement on Meta's platforms, solidifying its dominance in the region. Asian countries such as India and Indonesia have some of the highest numbers of Facebook users globally. India also leads globally in Instagram users, reflecting the region's significant contribution to Meta's success.

In 2024, Facebook was the leading social media platform in most of the Southeast Asian countries in terms of traffic generation to other websites, with the highest share in Timor-Leste at around ** percent. YouTube, X (Twitter), Instagram, and Pinterest were other platforms that had significant social media traffic shares in Southeast Asian markets that year. Social media advertising and web traffic referrals Traffic referrals from social media are crucial in social media advertising. Links shared on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter help direct potential customers to a brand’s website or landing page. This increases exposure, website visits, and conversions, such as sales or leads, which are key benefits of social media marketing according to marketers. Traffic referrals also serve as an important tool for advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Furthermore, by analyzing which platforms and content generate the most traffic, businesses can refine their strategies to focus on the highest-performing channels. Social media advertising – a multibillion-dollar business Revenue from social media advertising has continued to rise rapidly. This growth was driven by the ability to track user behavior, refine ad targeting, and deliver highly personalized content. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok generate billions of dollars of ad revenue annually. The owner of Facebook and Instagram, Meta Platforms’s annual advertising revenue exceeded *** billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Countries such as China, Japan, and Australia are among the largest social media advertising markets in the Asia-Pacific region, with China’s projected social media ad spend reaching nearly ** billion U.S. dollars in 2025.

In 2024, millennials usage of popular digital platforms in the United States eclipsed Gen Z's usage of several main platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Reddit. In comparison, Gen Z's usage outpaced millennials on digital platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat.

During the third quarter of 2020, it was found that Facebook was accessed by ** percent of U.S. internet users aged 26 to 35 years. Overall, ******* was the most popular social platform across all age groups.

As of the third quarter of 2024, WhatsApp was the most used social media platform in Brazil for 93.7 percent of the country's online audience. Instagram and Facebook followed, each being used by 92 and 81.5 percent of the Brazilian internet users. TikTok and Telegram were accessed by around 63.9 and 57.1 percent of users, while Facebook Messenger, Pinterest, Kuaishou, and LinkedIn accounted for smaller shares.

During a July 2022 survey among B2B marketers who used social media platforms for paid content promotion worldwide, ** percent of respondents stated that they made use of LinkedIn over the previous 12 months. Facebook was ranked second with ** percent of respondents, which was a drop of ** percentage points, compared to 2021, when ** percent stated using it.

In the United States, the revenue per social media platform is forecast to increase significantly in all social commerce sites. This reflects the overall trend throughout the entire forecast period from 2018 to 2029. In this regard, Facebook is estimated to achieve the highest value of **** billion U.S. dollars in 2029.