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 global social media penetration rate in was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 11.6 (+18.19 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the penetration rate is estimated to reach 75.31 and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the social media penetration rate of was continuously increasing over the past years.

Social media companies are starting to offer users the option to subscribe to their platforms in exchange for monthly fees. Until recently, social media has been predominantly free to use, with tech companies relying on advertising as their main revenue generator. However, advertising revenues have been dropping following the COVID-induced boom. As of July 2023, Meta Verified is the most costly of the subscription services, setting users back almost 15 U.S. dollars per month on iOS or Android. Twitter Blue costs between eight and 11 U.S. dollars per month and ensures users will receive the blue check mark, and have the ability to edit tweets and have NFT profile pictures. Snapchat+, drawing in four million users as of the second quarter of 2023, boasts a Story re-watch function, custom app icons, and a Snapchat+ badge.

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.

Researcher(s): Alexandros Mokas, Eleni Kamateri

Supervisor: Ioannis Tsampoulatidis

This repository contains 3 social media datasets:

2 Post-processing datasets: These datasets contain post-processing data extracted from the analysis of social media posts collected for two different use cases during the first two years of the Deepcube project. More specifically, these include:

The UC2 dataset containing the post-processing analysis of the Twitter data collected for the DeepCube use case (UC2) dealing with the climate induced migration in Africa. This dataset contains in total 5,695,253 social media posts collected from the Twitter platform, based on the initial version of search criteria relevant to UC2 defined by Universitat De Valencia, focused on the regions of Ethiopia and Somalia and started from 26 June, 2021 till March, 2023.

The UC5 dataset containing the post-processing analysis of the Twitter and Instagram data collected for the DeepCube use case (UC5) related to the sustainable and environmentally-friendly tourism. This dataset contains in total 58,143 social media posts collected from the Twitter and Instagram platform (12,881 collected from Twitter and 45,262 collected from Instagram), based on the initial version of search criteria relevant to UC5 defined by MURMURATION SAS, focused on the regions of Brasil and started from 26 June, 2021 till March, 2023.

1 Annotated dataset: An additional anottated dataset was created that contains post-processing data along with annotations of Twitter posts collected for UC2 for the years 2010-2022. More specifically, it includes:

The UC2 dataset contain the post-processing of the Twitter data collected for the DeepCube use case (UC2) dealing with the climate induced migration in Africa. This dataset contains in total 1721 annotated (412 relevant and 1309 irrelevant) by social media posts collected from the Twitter platform, focused on the region of Somalia and started from 1 January, 2010 till 31 December, 2022.

For every social media post retrieved from Twitter and Instagram, a preprocessing step was performed. This involved a three-step analysis of each post using the appropriate web service. First, the location of the post was automatically extracted from the text using a location extraction service. Second, the images included in the post were analyzed using a concept extraction service, which identified and provided the top ten concepts that best described the image. These concepts included items such as "person," "building," "drought," "sun," and so on. Finally, the sentiment expressed in the post's text was determined by using a sentiment analysis service. The sentiment was classified as either positive, negative, or neutral.

After the social media posts were preprocessed, they were visualized using the Social Media Web Application. This intuitive, user-friendly online application was designed for both expert and non-expert users and offers a web-based user interface for filtering and visualizing the collected social media data. The application provides various filtering options, an interactive map, a timeline, and a collection of graphs to help users analyze the data. Moreover, this application provides users with the option to download aggregated data for specific periods by applying filters and clicking the "Download Posts" button. This feature allows users to easily extract and analyze social media data outside of the web application, providing greater flexibility and control over data analysis.

The dataset is provided by INFALIA. INFALIA, being a spin-off of the CERTH institute and a partner of a research EU project, releases this dataset containing Tweets IDs and post pre-processing data for the sole purpose of enabling the validation of the research conducted within the DeepCube. Moreover, Twitter Content provided in this dataset to third parties remains subject to the Twitter Policy, and those third parties must agree to the Twitter Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Developer Agreement, and Developer Policy (https://developer.twitter.com/en/developer-terms) before receiving this download.

In 2023, Meta Platforms had a total annual revenue of over 134 billion U.S. dollars, up from 116 billion in 2022. LinkedIn reported its highest annual revenue to date, generating over 15 billion USD, whilst Snapchat reported an annual revenue of 4.6 billion USD.

The global number of Facebook users was forecast to continuously increase between 2023 and 2027 by in total 391 million users (+14.36 percent). After the fourth consecutive increasing year, the Facebook user base is estimated to reach 3.1 billion users and therefore a new peak in 2027. Notably, the number of Facebook users was continuously increasing over the past years. User figures, shown here regarding the platform Facebook, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.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).

In the fourth quarter of 2024, TikTok generated around 186 million downloads from users worldwide. Initially launched in China first by ByteDance as Douyin, the short-video format was popularized by TikTok and took over the global social media environment in 2020. In the first quarter of 2020, TikTok downloads peaked at over 313.5 million worldwide, up by 62.3 percent compared to the first quarter of 2019.

              TikTok interactions: is there a magic formula for content success?

              In 2024, TikTok registered an engagement rate of approximately 4.64 percent on video content hosted on its platform. During the same examined year, the social video app recorded over 1,100 interactions on average. These interactions were primarily composed of likes, while only recording less than 20 comments per piece of content on average in 2024.
              The platform has been actively monitoring the issue of fake interactions, as it removed around 236 million fake likes during the first quarter of 2024. Though there is no secret formula to get the maximum of these metrics, recommended video length can possibly contribute to the success of content on TikTok.
              It was recommended that tiny TikTok accounts with up to 500 followers post videos that are around 2.6 minutes long as of the first quarter of 2024. While, the ideal video duration for huge TikTok accounts with over 50,000 followers was 7.28 minutes. The average length of TikTok videos posted by the creators in 2024 was around 43 seconds.

              What’s trending on TikTok Shop?

              Since its launch in September 2023, TikTok Shop has become one of the most popular online shopping platforms, offering consumers a wide variety of products. In 2023, TikTok shops featuring beauty and personal care items sold over 370 million products worldwide.
              TikTok shops featuring womenswear and underwear, as well as food and beverages, followed with 285 and 138 million products sold, respectively. Similarly, in the United States market, health and beauty products were the most-selling items,
              accounting for 85 percent of sales made via the TikTok Shop feature during the first month of its launch. In 2023, Indonesia was the market with the largest number of TikTok Shops, hosting over 20 percent of all TikTok Shops. Thailand and Vietnam followed with 18.29 and 17.54 percent of the total shops listed on the famous short video platform, respectively.

🧠 data_jobs Dataset

A dataset of real-world data analytics job postings from 2023, collected and processed by Luke Barousse.

  Background

I've been collecting data on data job postings since 2022. I've been using a bot to scrape the data from Google, which come from a variety of sources. You can find the full dataset at my app datanerd.tech.

Serpapi has kindly supported my work by providing me access to their API. Tell them I sent you and get 20% off paid plans.… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/lukebarousse/data_jobs.

Bluesky User Events Stream

This repository contains user events on the Bluesky social network from its inception in Nov. 2022 to July 2023. The events captured include likes, follows, blocks, and other user interactions on the platform. More recent events will be added over time. The data is stored in JSONL format: { "createdAt": "2024-07-21T15:30:00Z", "$type": "app.bsky.feed.like", "did": "did:plc:123456", "uri": "at://did:plc:123456/app.bsky.feed.like/78910", ... //… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/hallofstairs/bluesky.

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 57 and 56 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.

NoSQL Database Market was valued at $9.38 Billion in 2023, and is projected to reach $USD 86.48 Billion by 2032, at a CAGR of 28% from 2023 to 2032.

Short-Term-Debt Time Series for Qyou Media Inc. QYOU Media Inc., through its subsidiaries, curates, produces, and distributes content created by social media stars and digital content creators in the United States, Canada, and India. The company offers chatterbox, an influencer and marketing platform agency that connects brands and categories with social media influencers; and distribute contents to connected TV, mobile, and app-based platforms. It also creates and manages influencer marketing campaigns for film studios, game publishers, and other brands. In addition, the company operates digital channels, such as The Q Kahaniyan, QGameX, QToonz, and RDC Movies. It distributes its content through social platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and X. QYOU Media Inc. is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

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.

Snapshot img

Alternative Data Market Size 2025-2029

The alternative data market size is valued to increase USD 60.32 billion, at a CAGR of 52.5% from 2024 to 2029. Increased availability and diversity of data sources will drive the alternative data market.

Major Market Trends & Insights

North America dominated the market and accounted for a 56% growth during the forecast period.
By Type - Credit and debit card transactions segment was valued at USD 228.40 billion in 2023
By End-user - BFSI segment accounted for the largest market revenue share in 2023

Market Size & Forecast

Market Opportunities: USD 6.00 million
Market Future Opportunities: USD 60318.00 million
CAGR from 2024 to 2029 : 52.5%

Market Summary

The market represents a dynamic and rapidly expanding landscape, driven by the increasing availability and diversity of data sources. With the rise of alternative data-driven investment strategies, businesses and investors are increasingly relying on non-traditional data to gain a competitive edge. Core technologies, such as machine learning and natural language processing, are transforming the way alternative data is collected, analyzed, and utilized. Despite its potential, the market faces challenges related to data quality and standardization. According to a recent study, alternative data accounts for only 10% of the total data used in financial services, yet 45% of firms surveyed reported issues with data quality.
Service types, including data providers, data aggregators, and data analytics firms, are addressing these challenges by offering solutions to ensure data accuracy and reliability. Regional mentions, such as North America and Europe, are leading the adoption of alternative data, with Europe projected to grow at a significant rate due to increasing regulatory support for alternative data usage. The market's continuous evolution is influenced by various factors, including technological advancements, changing regulations, and emerging trends in data usage.

What will be the Size of the Alternative Data Market during the forecast period?

Get Key Insights on Market Forecast (PDF) Request Free Sample

How is the Alternative Data Market Segmented ?

The alternative data 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

  Credit and debit card transactions
  Social media
  Mobile application usage
  Web scrapped data
  Others


End-user

  BFSI
  IT and telecommunication
  Retail
  Others


Geography

  North America

    US
    Canada
    Mexico


  Europe

    France
    Germany
    Italy
    UK


  APAC

    China
    India
    Japan


  Rest of World (ROW)

By Type Insights

The credit and debit card transactions segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period.

Alternative data derived from credit and debit card transactions plays a significant role in offering valuable insights for market analysts, financial institutions, and businesses. This data category is segmented into credit card and debit card transactions. Credit card transactions serve as a rich source of information on consumers' discretionary spending, revealing their luxury spending tendencies and credit management skills. Debit card transactions, on the other hand, shed light on essential spending habits, budgeting strategies, and daily expenses, providing insights into consumers' practical needs and lifestyle choices. Market analysts and financial institutions utilize this data to enhance their strategies and customer experiences.

Natural language processing (NLP) and sentiment analysis tools help extract valuable insights from this data. Anomaly detection systems enable the identification of unusual spending patterns, while data validation techniques ensure data accuracy. Risk management frameworks and hypothesis testing methods are employed to assess potential risks and opportunities. Data visualization dashboards and machine learning models facilitate data exploration and trend analysis. Data quality metrics and signal processing methods ensure data reliability and accuracy. Data governance policies and real-time data streams enable timely access to data. Time series forecasting, clustering techniques, and high-frequency data analysis provide insights into trends and patterns.

Model training datasets and model evaluation metrics are essential for model development and performance assessment. Data security protocols are crucial to protect sensitive financial information. Economic indicators and compliance regulations play a role in the context of this market. Unstructured data analysis, data cleansing pipelines, and statistical significance are essential for deriving meaningful insights from this data. New

How much time do people spend on social media?

              As of 2024, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 143 minutes per day, down from 151 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 three hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in
              the U.S. was just two 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.

As of April 2024, around 16.5 percent of global active Instagram users were men between the ages of 18 and 24 years. More than half of the global Instagram population worldwide was aged 34 years or younger.

              Teens and social media

              As one of the biggest social networks worldwide, Instagram is especially popular with teenagers. As of fall 2020, the photo-sharing app ranked third in terms of preferred social network among teenagers in the United States, second to Snapchat and TikTok. Instagram was one of the most influential advertising channels among female Gen Z users when making purchasing decisions. Teens report feeling more confident, popular, and better about themselves when using social media, and less lonely, depressed and anxious.
              Social media can have negative effects on teens, which is also much more pronounced on those with low emotional well-being. It was found that 35 percent of teenagers with low social-emotional well-being reported to have experienced cyber bullying when using social media, while in comparison only five percent of teenagers with high social-emotional well-being stated the same. As such, social media can have a big impact on already fragile states of mind.

During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, around 86 percent reported using Facebook for marketing purposes. Instagram and LinkedIn followed, respectively mentioned by 79 and 65 percent of the respondents.

              The global social media marketing segment

              According to the same study, 59 percent of responding marketers intended to increase their organic use of YouTube for marketing purposes throughout that year. LinkedIn and Instagram followed with similar shares, rounding up the top three social media platforms attracting a planned growth in organic use among global marketers in 2024. Their main driver is increasing brand exposure and traffic, which led the ranking of benefits of social media marketing worldwide.

              Social media for B2B marketing

              Social media platform adoption rates among business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketers vary according to each subsegment's focus. While B2C professionals prioritize Facebook and Instagram – both run by Meta, Inc. – due to their popularity among online audiences, B2B marketers concentrate their endeavors on Microsoft-owned LinkedIn due to its goal to connect people and companies in a corporate context.

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.

A global survey conducted in the third quarter of 2024 found that the main reason for using social media was to keep in touch with friends and family, with over 50.8 percent of social media users saying this was their main reason for using online networks. Overall, 39 percent of social media users said that filling spare time was their main reason for using social media platforms, whilst 34.5 percent of respondents said they used it to read news stories. Less than one in five users were on social platforms for the reason of following celebrities and influencers.

              The most popular social network

              Facebook dominates the social media landscape. The world's most popular social media platform turned 20 in February 2024, and it continues to lead the way in terms of user numbers. As of February 2025, the social network had over three billion global users. YouTube, Instagram, and WhatsApp follow, but none of these well-known brands can surpass Facebook’s audience size.
              Moreover, as of the final quarter of 2023, there were almost four billion Meta product users.

              Ever-evolving social media usage

              The utilization of social media remains largely gratuitous; however, companies have been encouraging users to become paid subscribers to reduce dependence on advertising profits. Meta Verified entices users by offering a blue verification badge and proactive account protection, among other things. X (formerly Twitter), Snapchat, and Reddit also offer users the chance to upgrade their social media accounts for a monthly free.