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.

A survey conducted in Japan during fiscal year 2024 showed that the messaging app LINE was used by **** percent of the respondents. While globally leading networks such as Instagram, X, and Facebook do get their fair share of popularity within the Japanese social media market, the only platform able to compete with LINE in terms of penetration rates is YouTube, which was used by **** percent of the respondents. What makes LINE so popular? The success story of the messaging service LINE started back in 2011 during the Great East Japan Earthquake. While conventional communication channels in affected areas had broken down to a large degree due to damages brought about by the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami, official sources as well as private individuals turned to online options for communicating news and confirming the safety of friends and family members. The LINE app, which was initially developed for communication between employees at NHN Japan, a Japanese subsidiary of the South Korean internet powerhouse Naver, was released for public use later that year. It appealed greatly to Japanese consumers due to its unique and customizable design, which allowed for both private and business usage. Today, the app is operated by LY Corporation, which is part of a joint venture between SoftBank Group and Naver. How do Japanese use social networks? Partly due to spread of smartphones in the 2010s, social media platforms have become increasingly important in people's daily lives. As a comparison of social network penetration rates of different countries shows, a vast majority of people in Japan use social networks. People in Japan on average spend several dozen minutes per weekday on social media, making this activity one of the most time-consuming online activities. According to one survey, the leading reasons for using social media are communicating with already existing acquaintances as well as searching for information.

The number of social media users in Japan was estimated at approximately **** million in 2024. It was projected to increase to almost ** million users by 2029. Leading social networking services The most commonly used social media in Japan are the messaging app LINE, YouTube, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), TikTok, and Facebook. LINE was developed by a Japanese subsidiary of the South Korean internet search engine provider Naver as a response to the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. While the traditional telecommunication infrastructure was damaged, people were able to connect with loved ones via social media and could stay informed about the most recent news. These possibilities generated a boost for social media in Japan, not only for LINE, but for Twitter and Facebook as well. Usage today Social media plays an important role today in how people in Japan communicate with each other. The average time people spend using social media per weekday has increased significantly in recent years. According to one survey, communication with already existing acquaintances is the most common reason for using social media in Japan. Due to their nearly ubiquitous presence in the daily lives of people, social media services are also an important information tool for government institutions or companies that want to get their messages across to citizens and customers.

Threads was downloaded more than ** million times in Japan in 2024, making it the leading social network app in terms of downloads during that year. It was followed by Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), and BeReal.

According to a survey conducted among Generation Z in Japan in November 2024, more than ** percent of the respondents used YouTube. YouTube was the leading social media platform, ahead of Instagram, X, and TikTok.

According to a survey conducted in December 2019, the messaging app LINE was leading among mobile social media and communication applications in Japan, being used by almost ** percent of smartphone owners. It was followed by the microblogging service Twitter, which was used by more than half of the respondents.

The microblogging app X (formerly known as Twitter) generated an app revenue of **** million U.S. dollars in Japan in 2024, making it the leading social network app during that year. It was followed by the matchmaking service Marrish, which recorded an app revenue of *** million dollars.

*********************************************** and *********************** are the top two answers among Japanese consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most common social media activities".The survey was conducted online among 12,989 respondents in Japan, in 2025.

We asked Japanese consumers about "Social network usage by brand" and found that ********* takes the top spot, while ******** is at the other end of the ranking.These results are based on a representative online survey conducted in 2025 among 12,989 consumers in Japan.

This statistic shows the most social media in the Japan in ********, based on their number of unique visitors. During that month, local social network Mixi was ranked fifth with **** million unique desktop visitors.

**** was the most popular social commerce platform in Japan, as revealed in a survey conducted in February 2023 by Rakuten Insight. Instagram followed in second place, with ** percent of respondents making purchases on the photo and video sharing platform in the past 12 months.

A survey conducted during the third quarter of 2024 showed that **** percent of internet users in Japan used social media to conduct research on brands. Social networks were the most common type of social media used for this purpose, followed by blogs on products or brands.

In a survey conducted in February 2023 in Japan, ** percent of respondents with experiences in finding information about restaurants on social media network stated that they used Instagram. This was the most common platform to do so, followed by Twitter.

This statistic presents the results of a survey about the social network penetration rate among university students in Japan in 2018, broken down by platform. During the measured period, the micro-blogging site Twitter was with a penetration rate of almost ** percent the most used social media platform among college students in Japan.

During the second quarter of 2025, internet users in Kenya spent the most time per week using social media, excluding watching videos, at 14 hours and 18 minutes. The Philippines and Nigeria also reported high usage levels. By comparison, internet users in Japan spent less than *********** per week on social media. Low levels of daily usage were also recorded in China and South Korea. As of February 2025, the social network Facebook was ranked first worldwide in terms of active users, at over ***** billion. 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 a mobile social messenger, and TikTok. 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.

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.

According to a survey conducted in March 2023, the most used type of smartphone apps in Japan were weather apps, which were used by almost ** percent of respondents. Social networking, chat, and communication apps were used by more than half of the respondents. Social media in Japan LY Corporation holds a particularly dominant position when it comes to social apps in Japan. The company’s main product is the messenger app LINE, which is used by a large proportion of the Japanese population. Next to LINE, the most popular social networks in Japan are YouTube, Instagram, and X, which also represent important venues for influencer marketing. Social media are not only used for keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances, but are also employed by people who want to look up information. Mobile gaming While apps are used for a variety of purposes, a ranking of the leading apps based on revenues shows that gaming apps reign supreme in Japan when it comes to profitability. While Japan is home to two of the major gaming console manufacturers, Sony and Nintendo, the versatility and ubiquity of smartphones has made mobile gaming the most popular way to play video games in Japan. Mobile games offer a convenient form of entertainment that can be enjoyed even during short breaks or while commuting to work. According to survey data, puzzle games are the most commonly played smartphone game genre.

In a survey conducted in Japan in January 2022, more than ** percent of young people belonging to Generation Z stated that they use Twitter the most among social media when it comes to gathering information on books. Twitter was followed by Instagram and YouTube.

The number of Facebook users in Japan amounted to approximately **** million in 2019. This figure was projected to increase to about **** million users by 2025. The total population of Japan was expected to decrease from more than *** million in 2019 to less than *** million by 2024. The spread of Facebook in Japan The Japanese version of Facebook launched in 2008, during the same year that Twitter entered the Japanese market. While Facebook was able to supplant domestic social networking services (SNS) such as Mixi and GREE, Twitter showed an even higher user growth in the years that followed. Social media in general became more important over the years, as the widespread adoption of smartphones made mobile communications easier than before. A further factor was the Great East Japan Earthquake that struck Japan in 2011 and disrupted phone lines in many places. The messaging app LINE was developed in a short time period as a response to the earthquake and subsequently, became Japan’s most successful messaging app. Facebook also saw a spike in user numbers during that year, which was further supported by the release of the movie The Social Network to Japanese cinemas in October 2010. Today, the most popular profiles on Facebook each have a following of several million fans. Facebook usage A survey from 2019 revealed that three quarters of Japanese used SNS on a daily basis. While this finding indicated a high presence of social media in peoples’ daily lives, penetration rates varied depending on the service. There also exist internal variations among the user bases. In the case of Facebook, breakdowns of the penetration rate by gender and by age group showed that the service was used equally by men and women, but much more commonly by people in their twenties and thirties than other age groups. According to a survey on the willingness to pay (WTP) for the use of SNS, Facebook users on average were willing to pay the highest amount of money among the users of major services.

According to a survey on digital usage in China, around 91.8 percent of respondents had used WeChat as of the third quarter of 2023. The short video app Douyin, the social commerce site Xiaohongshu, and the Twitter-like site Weibo, were among the most popular social media platforms in China. How successful is WeChat in China? The country’s most popular messaging app, WeChat, boasts over one billion monthly active users. For many Chinese consumers, WeChat is part of daily life, helping them to organize tasks such as paying bills, ordering food delivery, and calling a taxi. On average, WeChat users spent about an hour and 20 minutes per day on the app. Large user base with high engagement The social media scene in China is huge and mobile-centric. In 2023, the social media penetration rate amounted to 74 percent in China, slightly higher than in countries like the United States and Japan. While the user number has shown signs of reaching a saturation point, Chinese consumers have been spending more time online, with a considerable daily usage of social media.