As of early 2025, Saudi Arabia had the highest social media penetration rate globally out of selected countries and territories, with a whopping 102 percent. UAE and South Korea followed, with 96 percent and 94 percent of active usage reach, respectively. Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria had some of the lowest social network penetration rates in the world, with less than 26 percent of the population accessing social media in each country. How many people use social media? Although the top three countries with the highest social media penetration rates globally were in Eastern and Southwestern Asia in 2023, the region with the greatest social media reach was Northern Europe with 83.6 percent, followed by Western Europe with 83.3 percent and Southern Europe with 76.7 percent. In 2022, more than 4.59 billion people reported using social media, and this number is projected to reach almost six billion by 2027. Facebook: the most popular social network Meta’s Facebook, the social media giant and the first platform to reach this kind of scale, was the leading social network as of October 2023 with more than three billion global monthly active users (MAU). Additionally, Meta owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion MAU each: Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. As of January 2023, India was home to Facebook’s largest audience with more than 300 million MAU, followed by the United States with 175 million MAU.

During the first quarter of 2023, internet users in Brazil spent an average of three hours and 49 minutes per day on social media. Nigeria and the Philippines also reported high usage levels. By comparison, internet users in Japan spent less than 50 minutes per day on social media. Low levels of daily usage were also recorded in South Korea and the Belgium.

As of January 2023 social network Facebook was ranked first worldwide in terms of active users with almost three billion MAU. Other popular social media include mobile messaging platforms YouTube and WhatsApp, as well as social content sharing networks such as Instagram and social video platform TikTok.

Most social networks are accessible through multiple platforms, but many popular social media started out as mobile apps, demonstrating the growing trend of mobile first development. Examples include Instagram, which initially was launched as an iOS photo editing and discovery app as well as mobile social messenger, as well as TikTok, which recorded 23.7 million downloads worldwide via the Google Play Store alone in June 2023.

Social networking does not only enable users to connect with other people but also with brands and celebrities. Social media has also become a growing source of news for internet users in many countries.

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.

The messaging app LINE is Japan’s most popular online communication tool, reaching 86 million monthly actives users (MAU) in Japan during the third quarter of 2020.

The rise of LINE in Japan

The success story of the messaging service LINE started back in 2011 during the Great East Japan Earthquake. While conventional communication channels had broken down due to power failures and destroyed infrastructure, official sources turned to online options for communicating news and confirming the safety of citizens. The app was released for public use later that year, appealing greatly to Japanese consumers due to its unique and customizable design, allowing both private and business usage simultaneously. LINE Corporation’s annual revenue rose from less than seven billion Japanese yen in fiscal year 2012 to over 227 billion yen in fiscal year 2019, exemplifying the company’s major success since the launch of its app.

Social media usage in Japan

Compared to its neighboring countries, Japan has a relatively low social network penetration rate, being noticeably outpaced by Taiwan and South Korea. While globally leading networks do get their fair share of popularity within the Japanese social media market, a ranking of the most popular social networks based on audience reach showed that LINE had a significantly higher audience reach when compared to internationally successful apps such as Twitter or Instagram.

As of December 2021, WeChat and Weixin had about **** billion monthly active users, ranking first among the most popular Asia-based mobile messengers. This was followed by runner-up LINE with *** million monthly active users in the key markets Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia. WeChat (China), LINE (Japan), and KakaoTalk (South Korea) are market leaders in their country of origin.Mobile messengers in Asia PacificBesides text and voice messaging, WeChat, LINE, Hike and KakaoTalk also provide various other features such as photo and video sharing, digital payment and mobile gaming through mini apps that are integrated in the app itself while offering accounts for both private and business users. Combining all these features in one application is one of the reasons why these messenger apps have been witnessing increasing user numbers in the past years. Further factors for the popularity of messenger apps is the importance of social networks in countries such as China and the high internet usage and internet connectivity in places like South Korea.Global players User demand for special features, such as photo-sharing, video-sharing, voice messages or emoticons, as well as zero or low costs of messaging via an internet connection, have created a need for mobile messenger apps on the market. Globally, WhatsApp has been the market leader with 1.6 billion monthly users around the world as of October 2019, followed by Facebook Messenger and WeChat.