In the third quarter of 2023, Facebook was the leading social media in France with more than 72.3 percent of French online users accessing the social media platform on a monthly basis. The most popular messaging platform was WhatsApp, with 63.7 percent of surveyed French internet users reporting to have used the platform. Additionally, Instagram was used by 60.3 percent of respondents.

56 percent of French respondents answer our survey on "Most used websites and online services by type" with "Social media". The survey was conducted in 2025, among 2,754 consumers.

Survey findings showed that Facebook was the most frequently used social network for news access in France in 2024, with more than ** percent of respondents using the platform for news every week. YouTube and WhatsApp rounded out the top three that year. Social media usage is soaring in France The number of social media users in France has steadily increased since the start of the new millennium. Today, an estimated ** million people have an account on one of the various social networks to post pictures and videos, communicate with friends and strangers, stay up to date with their favorite celebrities and influencers, or catch up on news headlines. While video-sharing apps such as TikTok have shaken up the scene and amassed millions of users recently, Facebook remains the most popular social media platform in France, followed by Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram – all Meta-owned properties. Audiences lack trust in social media news Even though millions of social media users check their feeds for news each day, recent reports have indicated that a significant share of French online users are wary of news reports circulating on platforms such as Facebook. Less than ** percent of survey respondents felt confident about the accuracy of posts shared on social media by official channels in 2021. Meanwhile, French adults' trust in news on social media was even lower for information shared online by friends. Many French social media users stated they regularly encountered false news on their feeds, explaining why social media stands out as the least trustworthy news source according to French consumers.

When asked about "Most talked about products/topics online", most French respondents pick "Movies and series" as an answer. 27 percent did so in our online survey in 2025.

In 2022, 62 percent of the France population had used social media platforms in the 12 month prior, up from the previous year. Between 2010 and 2020, the share of people using social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn in France has experienced a constant increase, going from 36 percent of respondents in 2010 and reaching half of the country's population in 2015.

In 2022, approximately ** percent of the total population in France used social networks, while the share of French internet users who declared that they participated in social networks amounted to ** percent. Between 2020 and 2022, the share of social media users within French society decreased by five percentage points. When compared to the country's digital population, the share of social media users decreased from ** percent to ** percent between 2020 and 2022.

** percent of French respondents answer our survey on "Most used social media platforms by type" with "Instant messengers (e.g., WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat)". The survey was conducted in 2023, among ****** consumers.Find this and more survey data on most used social media platforms by type in our Consumer Insights tool. Filter by countless demographics, drill down to your own, hand-tailored target audience, and compare results across countries worldwide.

The number of social media users in France was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total **** million users (****** percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the social media user base is estimated to reach ***** 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 *** 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).Find more key insights for the number of social media users in countries like Luxembourg and Netherlands.

We asked French 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 13,025 consumers in France.

As many popular social media applications such as Instagram and Facebook have already introduced shopping features on their platforms as of 2020, the source has gathered the usage share for the main platforms used for shopping by French consumers in 2020. Facebook, being the first network to have introduced the shopping function among the three in the ranking, came in first with ** percent of respondents having made a purchase through it. Instagram ranked in second with about ** percent, followed by Snapchat with around ** percent.

As of February 2025, **** percent of social media users in France were women, whilst **** percent were men. Overall, at the beginning of 2025, there were over ** million social media users in the country.

*********************** and *********************************************** are the top two answers among French consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most common social media activities".The survey was conducted online among 13,025 respondents in France, in 2025.

While many young people use social media in France in 2022, they seem to choose different platforms according to their age group. For instance, Instagram was only used by ********* of the 11-14 but by almost ********** of the 15-17 and 18-24. Facebook, in general, was less popular than Instagram, but still used by **** of the 18-24. Moreover, TikTok gained a lot of popularity in the last years and on average was used by *** out of ****young people, regardless of their age group, being even more popular among 15-17.

In France in 2021, **** percent of French teenagers aged 11 to 18 years old declared in a survey conducted to analyze the social media behaviors of children, that they used Snapchat the most, while **** percent used mainly Instagram. The same survey mentioned a difference between 11 to 14 year olds and 14 to 18 year olds, where a significant difference in the usage of Instagram could be observed. Only ** percent of 11 to 14 year olds were using the social media service compared to ** percent of 14 to 18 year olds.  

Social media preferences among French young adults  

According to another survey from 2021, Instagram ranked as one of the preferred social media among French young adults: ** percent of respondents declared using it, before Snapchat, who was the forerunner in 2018. More generally, although social networks as Facebook were used regularly by a majority of surveyed, ** percent of French also declared, based on Statista’s Global Consumer Survey, to use media sharing platforms like Instagram and Snapchat regularly.  

Social media usage in France  

Still according to the Statista Global Consumer Survey conducted in 2020, ** percent of responding French people said to use social media as Facebook or Instagram daily. But, what do French adults and children do on social media? For adults, the most employed feature of social media was sending private messages, which correlates with the fact that Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp were the two first used services before Snapchat. For children, the activities were similar: most children responded to be communicating with their friends and family as well as watch videos. However, some children responded with having fears of using social media platforms. Most were afraid of being harassed, but what these children had already encountered were arguments with strangers.

In France, ** percent of the respondents used Facebook for any purposes and ** percent declared using Facebook for the purpose of getting news as of 2023. YouTube and Instagram came in second and third positions when it comes to news with ** and ** percent respectively that same year.

"Sent private messages" and "Liked posts by other users or followed people" are the top two answers among French consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most common social media activities".The survey was conducted online among 12,192 respondents in France, in 2024.

In November 2024, TikTok was the app on which users in France spent the most time. On average, users spent around 33 hours per month on the popular video app. YouTube was the second most engaging platform for French digital audiences, with users spending approximately 16.19 hours monthly on the video platform.

As of May 2022, media and instant messaging app Snapchat was the most visited social media for France users aged 15 to 24 years. Overall, *** million young users accessed Snapchat daily. Instagram followed, with *** million daily active users belonging to this age group. TikTok, although very popular with Gen Z audiences worldwide, ranked third in France with over ***** million daily active users aged between 15 and 24 years.

This statistic represents the perception of the French regarding the commercial use of their personal data via social networks in 2016. That year, over 80 percent of respondents thought that at least some social networks used their data for commercial purposes.

In 2023, 88 percent of individuals aged 12 to 17 years in France reported using social media primarily for entertainment, while 82 percent used it to maintain connections with their loved ones. Among those aged 18 to 24 years, 44 percent engaged with social media to meet new people.