As of January 2024, Instagram was slightly more popular with men than women, with men accounting for 50.6 percent of the platform’s global users. Additionally, the social media app was most popular amongst younger audiences, with almost 32 percent of users aged between 18 and 24 years.

              Instagram’s Global Audience

              As of January 2024, Instagram was the fourth most popular social media platform globally, reaching two billion monthly active users (MAU). This number is projected to keep growing with no signs of slowing down, which is not a surprise as the global online social penetration rate across all regions is constantly increasing.
              As of January 2024, the country with the largest Instagram audience was India with 362.9 million users, followed by the United States with 169.7 million users.

              Who is winning over the generations?

              Even though Instagram’s audience is almost twice the size of TikTok’s on a global scale, TikTok has shown itself to be a fierce competitor, particularly amongst younger audiences. TikTok was the most downloaded mobile app globally in 2022, generating 672 million downloads. As of 2022, Generation Z in the United States spent more time on TikTok than on Instagram monthly.

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.

The global big data market is forecasted to grow to 103 billion U.S. dollars by 2027, more than double its expected market size in 2018. With a share of 45 percent, the software segment would become the large big data market segment by 2027.

What is Big data?

Big data is a term that refers to the kind of data sets that are too large or too complex for traditional data processing applications. It is defined as having one or some of the following characteristics: high volume, high velocity or high variety. Fast-growing mobile data traffic, cloud computing traffic, as well as the rapid development of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) all contribute to the increasing volume and complexity of data sets.

Big data analytics

Advanced analytics tools, such as predictive analytics and data mining, help to extract value from the data and generate new business insights. The global big data and business analytics market was valued at 169 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 and is expected to grow to 274 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. As of November 2018, 45 percent of professionals in the market research industry reportedly used big data analytics as a research method.

In February 2025, Verizon Media processed 2.51 million online search queries in the United States, and market leader Google processed over 14.7 million search queries. In total, Google accounted for 60 percent of the U.S. desktop search queries. Google was also the leading mobile search provider in the United States, accounting for around 95 percent of the market as of March 2024.

As many consumers have become determined about their beliefs surrounding sustainability, putting their money where their mouth is, many enterprises and brands around the world have reacted accordingly. When asked about any sustainable initiatives in 2021, nearly half of businesses stated they are investing in easy solutions for recycling their products over the next year. Over a third of surveyed companies also planned to distance themselves from partners that were not likely to meet shared sustainability targets.

As of September 2024, social media users in the United Kingdom with a secondary level education made up 21 percent of users in the country. Overall, 22 percent of social media users had achieved further education, and 29 percent were of bachelor's degree education or equivalent.

According to Statista estimates, the revenue of the secondhand consumer goods market is forecast to greatly increase across all categories from the years 2022 to 2026. Apparel was estimated to be by far the largest secondhand category in 2022 with more then 50 billion U.S. dollars, a trend which was expected to continue through to 2026.

Meta Platforms continues to dominate the digital landscape, with its Family of Apps segment generating a remarkable 162.4 billion U.S. dollars in revenue for 2024. This figure underscores the company's ability to monetize its vast user base across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, despite facing challenges in recent years. Advertising fuels growth amid market fluctuations Despite experiencing its first-ever year-on-year decline in 2022, Meta rebounded strongly in 2024, with total annual revenue reaching 164.5 billion U.S. dollars. This resilience showcases Meta's adaptability in the face of market changes and its continued appeal to advertisers seeking to reach a global audience. Expanding reach and engagement Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than three billion monthly active users. Additionally, 2024 saw an astounding 138.9 million Reels played on Facebook and Instagram every 60 seconds.

Total IT spending worldwide is expected to increase by 9.8 percent in 2025, with spending on data center systems forecast to increase by 23.2 percent. Demand for data center capacity has surged amid the adoption of data intensive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the cloud.

During a January 2024 global survey among marketers, nearly 60 percent reported plans to increase their organic use of YouTube for marketing purposes in the following 12 months. LinkedIn and Instagram followed, respectively, mentioned by ** and ** percent of the respondents intending to use them more. According to the same survey, Facebook was the most important social media platform for marketers worldwide.

Facebook is the leading social network worldwide, and its accessibility through multiple mobile apps as well as its mobile website. In January 2021, over 98 percent of active user accounts worldwide accessed the social network via any kind of mobile phone.

Facebook in mobile-first markets India is thecountry with the largest Facebook audience by far, with 340 million users on the platform, followed the United States, Indonesia, and Brazil all of which have more than 100 million Facebook users each. With the exception of the United States, all of these are digital markets with mobile-first audiences. In many emerging markets, mobile is often the first online experience, providing online users with their first internet experience through inexpensive smartphones and mobile data contracts. In India and Indonesia, mobile by far surpasses desktop in terms of audiences and time spent.

Mobile Facebook access Due to the social network’s wide reach on mobile, it is unsurprising that Facebook consistently ranks as one of the most-downloaded app publishers worldwide. Some of the apps published by Facebook include the eponymous social networking app (and its low-bandwidth version, Facebook Lite), Facebook Messenger (also available as Messenger Lite), Facebook Pages Manager and Facebook Local. In the Google Play Store, Facebook Messenger, Messenger Lite and Facebook frequently rank among the top downloaded apps every month.

As of 2024, internet penetration in Europe was the highest among the world regions, growing from nearly 60 percent in 2009 to 91 percent in the latest measured year. Internet use in Africa was the lowest worldwide, at 38 percent. As of the same year, the total global internet reach translated to an estimated 4.9 billion internet users worldwide. Europe digital dominance Europe remains the most connected region globally, with steady growth in internet usage. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of internet users rose by 3 percent, and projected to reach 800 million by 2029. As of October 2024, Northern Europe was the first region worldwide by internet penetration, accounting for 97.5 percent penetration rate, while four of the six countries with the highest internet penetration rate worldwide are European, which highlights the region's dominance. Africa’s digital growth Internet use in Africa continues to grow, with mobile devices accounting for most of the web traffic across major African markets. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of internet users on the continent increased by nearly 13 percent, while the number of mobile internet users increased by 26 percent, reaching 331 million. As of January 2024, Morocco was leading with an impressive internet penetration rate of around 91 percent, while countries like Nigeria, Egypt, and South Africa had the highest number of internet users in the continent.

As of April 2025, almost 32 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 25 and 34 years, and 29.5 percent of users were aged between 25 and 34 years. Overall, 16.3 percent of users belonged to the 35 to 44 year age group. Instagram users With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide. The social photo sharing app is especially popular in India and in the United States, which have respectively 413.85 million and 171.7 million Instagram users each. Instagram features One of the most popular features of Instagram is Stories. Users can post photos and videos to their Stories stream and the content is live for others to view for 24 hours before it disappears. In January 2019, the company reported that there were 500 million daily active Instagram Stories users. Instagram Stories directly competes with Snapchat, another photo sharing app that initially became famous due to it’s “vanishing photos” feature. As of the first quarter of 2025, Snapchat had 460 million daily active users.

As of February 2025, 5.56 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, which amounted to 67.9 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.24 billion, or 63.9 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 20254. In The Netherlands, Norway and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of February 2025. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Eastern Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide – over 1.34 billion at the latest count. Southern Asia ranked second, with around 1.2 billion internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2024, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in African countries, with around a ten percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller usage gap between these two genders. As of 2024, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years old across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most significant usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group 15–24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

Asia leads the ranking of biggest e-commerce markets worldwide. The total revenue of online retail in Asian countries added up to nearly * trillion U.S. dollars in 2025. This was approximately *** billion U.S. dollars higher than the e-commerce revenue reached in the Americas. Australia, Oceania, and Africa were estimated to achieve far lower e-commerce revenues in 2025, with values below ** billion U.S. dollars. Asia’s leading position can mostly be ascribed to China, which achieved a revenue of over ************ U.S. dollars in 2024. How dominant is Asia in e-commerce? The e-commerce market is highly developed on the Asian continent, and will continue to grow. For instance, India is among the countries with the highest Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for its e-commerce market. Between 2025 and 2029, the market value is forecast to grow with over ** percent annually. The Latin-American e-commerce market is also forecast to grow quickly in the coming years. Large Asian e-commerce markets have a strong influence over the rest of the world. A concrete example of an Asian e-commerce channel that is being adopted in the West is the TikTok Shop, connecting social media and e-commerce to form social commerce.

India has the most universities worldwide. According to data from July 2023, there were an estimated ***** universities in India. Indonesia had the second most universities, counting *****, followed by the United States with ***** universities.

The global artificial intelligence (AI) software market is forecast to grow rapidly in the coming years, reaching around *** billion U.S. dollars by 2025. The overall AI market includes a wide array of applications such as natural language processing, robotic process automation, and machine learning. What is artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence refers to the capability of a machine that is able to replicate or simulate intelligent human behaviours such as analysing and making judgments and decisions. Originated in the computer sciences and a contested area in philosophy, artificial intelligence has evolved and developed rapidly in the past decades and AI use cases can now be found in all corners of our society: the digital voice assistants that reside in our smartphones or smart speakers, customer support chatbots, as well as industrial robots. Investments in AI Many of the biggest names in the tech industry have invested heavily into both AI acquisitions and AI related research and development. When it comes to AI patent applications by company, Microsoft, IBM, Google, and Samsung have each submitted thousands of such applications, and funding for AI related start-ups are raking in dozens of billions of dollars each year.

As of January 2025, 24.2 percent of Facebook users in the United States were aged between 25 and 34 years, making up Facebook’s largest audience in the country. Overall, 19 percent of users belonged to the 18 to 24-year age group. Does everyone in the U.S. use Facebook? In 2023, there were approximately 247 million Facebook users in the U.S., a figure which is projected to steadily increase, and reach 262.8 million by 2028. Social media users in the United States have a very high awareness of the social media giant. Expectedly, 94 percent of users had heard of the brand in 2023. Although the vast majority of U.S. social networkers knew of Facebook, the likeability of the platform was not so impressive at 68 percent. Nonetheless, usage, loyalty, and buzz around the brand remained relatively high. Facebook, Meta, and the metaverse A strategic rebranding from Facebook to Meta Platforms in late 2021 boded well for the company in Mark Zuckerberg’s attempt to be strongly linked to the metaverse, and to be considered more than just a social media company. According to a survey conducted in the U.S. in early 2022, Meta Platforms is the brand that Americans most associated with the metaverse.  

Advertising remained the main revenue-generating segment for Google in 2024. During the examined year, 77.8 percent of Google’s revenue came from advertising on Google properties and YouTube. The Google Cloud revenue segment generated 10.8 percent of the company's revenues, up from 4.3 percent in 2018.

According to a survey conducted in August 2024 in the United States, Facebook and Instagram were the most popular social media platforms among small to midsize businesses. Around ** percent of respondents reported using Facebook to promote products and services. Approximately ** percent of respondents mentioned the same for Instagram. TikTok and X had the lowest usage levels among SMBs.