Facebook received 73,390 user data requests from federal agencies and courts in the United States during the second half of 2023. The social network produced some user data in 88.84 percent of requests from U.S. federal authorities. The United States accounts for the largest share of Facebook user data requests worldwide.

Cristiano Ronaldo has one of the most popular Instagram accounts as of April 2024.

              The Portuguese footballer is the most-followed person on the photo sharing app platform with 628 million followers. Instagram's own account was ranked first with roughly 672 million followers.

              How popular is Instagram?

              Instagram is a photo-sharing social networking service that enables users to take pictures and edit them with filters. The platform allows users to post and share their images online and directly with their friends and followers on the social network. The cross-platform app reached one billion monthly active users in mid-2018. In 2020, there were over 114 million Instagram users in the United States and experts project this figure to surpass 127 million users in 2023.

              Who uses Instagram?

              Instagram audiences are predominantly young – recent data states that almost 60 percent of U.S. Instagram users are aged 34 years or younger. Fall 2020 data reveals that Instagram is also one of the most popular social media for teens and one of the social networks with the biggest reach among teens in the United States.

              Celebrity influencers on Instagram
              Many celebrities and athletes are brand spokespeople and generate additional income with social media advertising and sponsored content. Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo ranked first again, as the average media value of one of his Instagram posts was 985,441 U.S. dollars.

The number of social media users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 26 million users (+8.55 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the social media user base is estimated to reach 330.07 million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of social media users of was continuously increasing over the past years.The shown figures regarding social media users have been derived from survey data that has been processed to estimate missing demographics.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

Facebook is fast approaching 3 billion monthly active users. That’s about 36% of the world’s entire population that log in and use Facebook at least once a month.

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2025, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 141 minutes per day, down from 143 minutes in the previous year. Currently, the country with the most time spent on social media per day is Brazil, with online users spending an average of 3 hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just 2 hours and 16 minutes. Global social media usageCurrently, the global social network penetration rate is 62.3 percent. Northern Europe had an 81.7 percent social media penetration rate, topping the ranking of global social media usage by region. Eastern and Middle Africa closed the ranking with 10.1 and 9.6 percent usage reach, respectively. People access social media for a variety of reasons. Users like to find funny or entertaining content and enjoy sharing photos and videos with friends, but mainly use social media to stay in touch with current events friends. Global impact of social mediaSocial media has a wide-reaching and significant impact on not only online activities but also offline behavior and life in general. During a global online user survey in February 2019, a significant share of respondents stated that social media had increased their access to information, ease of communication, and freedom of expression. On the flip side, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased a polarization in politics and heightened everyday distractions.

How many people use social media?

              Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities. In 2024, over five billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to over six billion in 2028.

              Who uses social media?
              Social networking is one of the most popular digital activities worldwide and it is no surprise that social networking penetration across all regions is constantly increasing. As of January 2023, the global social media usage rate stood at 59 percent. This figure is anticipated to grow as lesser developed digital markets catch up with other regions
              when it comes to infrastructure development and the availability of cheap mobile devices. In fact, most of social media’s global growth is driven by the increasing usage of mobile devices. Mobile-first market Eastern Asia topped the global ranking of mobile social networking penetration, followed by established digital powerhouses such as the Americas and Northern Europe.

              How much time do people spend on social media?
              Social media is an integral part of daily internet usage. On average, internet users spend 151 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps, an increase of 40 minutes since 2015. On average, internet users in Latin America had the highest average time spent per day on social media.

              What are the most popular social media platforms?
              Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently boasts approximately 2.9 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular social network worldwide. In June 2023, the top social media apps in the Apple App Store included mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram Messenger, as well as the ever-popular app version of Facebook.

The results might surprise you when looking at internet users that are active on social media in each country.

The average person has 8-9 social media accounts. This has doubled since 2013, when the average person just had 4-5 accounts.

56.8% of the world’s total population is active on social media.

During a 2024 survey, 77 percent of respondents from Nigeria stated that they used social media as a source of news. In comparison, just 23 percent of Japanese respondents said the same. Large portions of social media users around the world admit that they do not trust social platforms either as media sources or as a way to get news, and yet they continue to access such networks on a daily basis.

              Social media: trust and consumption

              Despite the majority of adults surveyed in each country reporting that they used social networks to keep up to date with news and current affairs, a 2018 study showed that social media is the least trusted news source in the world. Less than 35 percent of adults in Europe considered social networks to be trustworthy in this respect, yet more than 50 percent of adults in Portugal, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia said that they got their news on social media.

              What is clear is that we live in an era where social media is such an enormous part of daily life that consumers will still use it in spite of their doubts or reservations. Concerns about fake news and propaganda on social media have not stopped billions of users accessing their favorite networks on a daily basis.
              Most Millennials in the United States use social media for news every day, and younger consumers in European countries are much more likely to use social networks for national political news than their older peers.
              Like it or not, reading news on social is fast becoming the norm for younger generations, and this form of news consumption will likely increase further regardless of whether consumers fully trust their chosen network or not.

Today the average time spent on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes today for people aged 16 to 64.

In this post, I'll give you all the social media addiction statistics you need to be aware of to moderate your social media use.

Salutary Data is a boutique, B2B contact and company data provider that's committed to delivering high quality data for sales intelligence, lead generation, marketing, recruiting / HR, identity resolution, and ML / AI. Our database currently consists of 148MM+ highly curated B2B Contacts ( US only), along with over 4M+ companies, and is updated regularly to ensure we have the most up-to-date information.

We can enrich your in-house data ( CRM Enrichment, Lead Enrichment, etc.) and provide you with a custom dataset ( such as a lead list) tailored to your target audience specifications and data use-case. We also support large-scale data licensing to software providers and agencies that intend to redistribute our data to their customers and end-users.

What makes Salutary unique? - We offer our clients a truly unique, one-stop aggregation of the best-of-breed quality data sources. Our supplier network consists of numerous, established high quality suppliers that are rigorously vetted. - We leverage third party verification vendors to ensure phone numbers and emails are accurate and connect to the right person. Additionally, we deploy automated and manual verification techniques to ensure we have the latest job information for contacts. - We're reasonably priced and easy to work with.

Products: API Suite Web UI Full and Custom Data Feeds

Services: Data Enrichment - We assess the fill rate gaps and profile your customer file for the purpose of appending fields, updating information, and/or rendering net new “look alike” prospects for your campaigns. ABM Match & Append - Send us your domain or other company related files, and we’ll match your Account Based Marketing targets and provide you with B2B contacts to campaign. Optionally throw in your suppression file to avoid any redundant records. Verification (“Cleaning/Hygiene”) Services - Address the 2% per month aging issue on contact records! We will identify duplicate records, contacts no longer at the company, rid your email hard bounces, and update/replace titles or phones. This is right up our alley and levers our existing internal and external processes and systems.

More than 100 social media channels and statistics for the National Archives and Records Administration.

The number of social media users in North America was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 70.3 million users (+16.55 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the social media user base is estimated to reach 495.12 million users and therefore a new peak in 2029. Notably, the number of social media users of was continuously increasing over the past years.The shown figures regarding social media users have been derived from survey data that has been processed to estimate missing demographics.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

Gen Z and Millennials are the biggest social media users of all age groups.

Interactions on social media have the potential to help us to understand human behaviour, including the development of both good and poor mental health. However, to do the best science we need to know as much as possible about the people who are participating in our research. The CLOSER group of UK longitudinal cohorts include people who have contributed their data to research since birth. By inviting participants in these cohorts to also allow us to derive information from their social media feeds, we will be able to relate this information to gold-standard measures of the behaviours we are trying to understand and to world-class data on other aspects of life. To work out the best way to do this, our project will engage with participants in the Children of the '90s cohort to find out what is acceptable to them in terms of collecting and using their interactions on social media. We will use what we have learnt to develop software that collects and codes social media data in a way that protects the anonymity of participants by scoring Tweets without making the text available to researchers. We will share this software with other CLOSER cohorts to make it easy for them to invite participants to contribute their Twitter data in a safe and secure way. The high-resolution data collected in this way will help us to understand human behaviour and how mental health changes over time. Collecting these data in well known groups of people will also give scientists the information they need to improve the quality of all research using social media.Interactions on social media have the potential to help us to understand human behaviour, including the development of both good and poor mental health. However, to do the best science we need to know as much as possible about the people who are participating in our research. The CLOSER group of UK longitudinal cohorts include people who have contributed their data to research since birth. By inviting participants in these cohorts to also allow us to derive information from their social media feeds, we will be able to relate this information to gold-standard measures of the behaviours we are trying to understand and to world-class data on other aspects of life. To work out the best way to do this, our project will engage with participants in the Children of the '90s cohort to find out what is acceptable to them in terms of collecting and using their interactions on social media. We will use what we have learnt to develop software that collects and codes social media data in a way that protects the anonymity of participants by scoring Tweets without making the text available to researchers. We will share this software with other CLOSER cohorts to make it easy for them to invite participants to contribute their Twitter data in a safe and secure way. The high-resolution data collected in this way will help us to understand human behaviour and how mental health changes over time. Collecting these data in well known groups of people will also give scientists the information they need to improve the quality of all research using social media. We are demonstrating collection, anonymisation and analysis of social media data from consenting participants in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Initially we are studying Twitter use, and gathering data through the platforms API. Our software gathers social media posts and interactions from participants every few days, with datasets being stored under security ISO 27001 certification. Derived, depersonalised datasets can be made available to approved researchers, and we aim to provide a means to evaluate sentiment analysis methods against ground truth data.

Facebook and YouTube are still the most used social media platforms today.

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Social Media Listening Market Size 2025-2029

The social media listening market size is forecast to increase by USD 4.87 billion at a CAGR of 8.9% between 2024 and 2029.

The market is experiencing significant growth, driven primarily by the increasing usage of social media platforms worldwide. With over 4.3 billion users as of 2021, social media has become a powerful tool for businesses to engage with their customers and gain valuable insights into consumer behavior and preferences. A key trend in this market is the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies in social media listening solutions, enabling more accurate and efficient data analysis. However, this market is not without challenges. Data privacy and regulatory compliance are becoming increasingly important, with stricter regulations being implemented to protect user data.
Companies must ensure they have strong data security measures in place to comply with these regulations and maintain consumer trust. Additionally, the vast amount of data generated on social media requires sophisticated analytics tools to extract meaningful insights. As such, businesses seeking to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the market must invest in advanced analytics solutions and prioritize data security and privacy. By doing so, they can effectively navigate the challenges and stay ahead of the competition.

What will be the Size of the Social Media Listening Market during the forecast period?

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Social media listening has emerged as a crucial business tool, enabling organizations to gain valuable insights from the vast amount of data generated through social media activity. This data is analyzed using techniques such as topic modeling and sentiment scoring to understand consumer behavior, preferences, and trends. Social media geographics and demographics provide essential context, while social media reach and volume measure the scope and impact of conversations. Social media pulse and sentiment reflect the current sentiment and buzz surrounding specific topics, offering real-time insights into market dynamics and trends.
Social media listening software is a vital component of the global market for social media analytics. Social media influence is assessed through the size and engagement of an audience, providing valuable information for marketing and brand management strategies. The social media landscape and heatmap offer a comprehensive view of the social media ecosystem, helping businesses stay informed and adapt to evolving patterns.

How is this Social Media Listening Industry segmented?

The social media listening industry research report provides comprehensive data (region-wise segment analysis), with forecasts and estimates in 'USD million' for the period 2025-2029, as well as historical data from 2019-2023 for the following segments.

Type

  Software
  Services


End-user

  Retail and e-commerce
  IT and telecom
  BFSI
  Media and entertainment
  Others


Geography

  North America

    US
    Canada


  Europe

    France
    Germany
    UK


  Middle East and Africa



  APAC

    China
    India
    Japan
    South Korea


  South America

    Brazil


  Rest of World (ROW)

By Type Insights

The software segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period. This segment encompasses platforms and tools that offer real-time, automated, and scalable capabilities to monitor and analyze social media conversations across various channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Reddit. Real-time monitoring is a key feature of these solutions, empowering brands to identify mentions, trends, and sentiment as they emerge. By staying abreast of evolving topics, businesses can respond promptly to customer concerns, capitalize on viral events, and maintain a strong online presence. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies are integral to social media listening software, enabling advanced topic identification, sentiment analysis, and trend recognition.

These technologies enable businesses to gain valuable customer insights, inform product development, and enhance customer experience. Social media listening platforms also offer data visualization and reporting features, allowing businesses to analyze and present their findings in a clear and actionable manner. Additionally, they provide social media dashboards, alerts, and governance tools to ensure compliance with social media policies and ethical standards. In summary, social media listening software plays a pivotal role in the global market for social media analytics, offering real-time insights and advanced capabilities to help businesses navigate the complex social media landscape and engage effectively with their audience.

Get a glance at the market report of share

This study focuses on a unique social media user migration phenomenon: a large number of U.S. users shifted to another Chinese social platform, Xiaohongshu, against the backdrop of the U.S. government's push to ban TikTok. By constructing a multidimensional analysis framework, this study systematically analyzes 5,919 user reviews collected during January 2025. The study uses MediaCrawler crawler technology to collect data, TextBlob for sentiment analysis, and combines geographic distribution, time trend and text theme analysis methods to deeply explore this unique user migration pattern. The study finds that despite policy pressure, users have a neutral to positive attitude towards platform migration, with 59.6% of neutral comments and 32.7% of positive comments. The analysis of geographic distribution shows that 88.7% of users in the United States have a significant “digital backlash”. Temporal trend analysis reveals the “bimodal” character of user discussions, reflecting the dynamic change of policy impact and users' continuous attention. Text analysis further shows that users are more concerned about the functional experience of the platform than political factors, reflecting rationality beyond geopolitics. These findings provide new perspectives for understanding social media user behavior in the context of globalization, and have important implications for social media policymaking and platform operation. The study suggests that in the digital era, administrative means have limited influence on users' platform choices, and users' social needs and behavioral choices often transcend geopolitical constraints.