TikTok saw an exceptional increase of monthly active users worldwide from 2019 to 2021, at 38 percent. The short-form video sharing app was used by 689 million individuals monthly as of 2021, compared to 500 million in 2019. Other leading social networks that increased with over 30 percent were Pinterest and Reddit.

The coronavirus pandemic is one of the factors that have resulted in an increased interest in social networking, with billions of people in lockdown, working and studying from home, and in need of socializing.

As of February 2021, YouTube had a global penetration rate of 62 percent, followed closely by Meta's Facebook, with 61 percent. Overall, instant messaging service WhatsApp had a global penetration rate of 52 percent. Additionally, 12 percent of people used TikTok, and one in ten people around the world use messaging service Telegram.

As of 2021, Facebook, recently rebranded as Meta, was the social media platform used most often by 47 percent of social networking users in the United States. In 2015, Facebook was the most used platform by 65 percent of social media users, demonstrating a decrease of almost 20 percent. During the same time frame, Instagram has continued to grow in popularity, with 18 percent of users saying it was their most often used platform in 2021, an increase of 11 percent since 2015. Snapchat was the most used platform by 14 percent of respondents in 2018 and has since continued to decline. In 2020, TikTok was the most accessed platform for three percent of users and by 2021 it had more than doubled to seven percent.

An analysis of over 1,800 influencer campaigns showed that Instagram was the most popular platform for such purposes. It was incorporated into 94 percent of analyzed campaigns. Facebook ranked second, used by 43 percent of campaigns.

As of April 2021, 51 percent of respondents stated that the social media platform they used the most was Instagram, followed by Facebook. Less than ten percent of respondents were constantly using TikTok and Snapchat.

As of September 2023, Facebook had the largest market share among social media platforms in Africa. The traffic generation capabilities of Facebook in Africa reached 79.4 percent. YouTube was the closest, with a share of 6.6 percent. Overall, Facebook has dominated traffic referrals to other websites on the African continent over the observed period.

Social media users were the highest across India as of February 2021 for messaging app Whatsapp, at 530 million. YouTube followed during the same time, with Facebook ranking third. The government in the country introduced new rules under its IT-law earlier that year with the aim of social media platforms self-regulating by focusing on stronger guidelines.

A 2021 online survey conducted in the United States found that 34 percent of respondents trusted Facebook the least when it came to their personal privacy and data on social media, with 34 percent reporting Facebook as the least trusted service. Overall, one third of respondents said they trusted TikTok the least, and 23 percent said Twitter was their least trusted social media platform.

In 2021, more than 40 percent of surveyed consumers in the United States used Facebook when looking for promo codes, discounts, or coupons, making it the preferred social media platform for bargain hunters. Roughly 30 percent of U.S. consumers also used Instagram, while only about five percent of participants mentioned LinkedIn.

During a 2021 survey, over 47 percent of responding social media users aged 16 to 34 from the United States had purchased products or services on Instagram. Facebook was the platform named most often, used for purchases by nearly 51 percent of respondents. The phenomenon of making purchases via social channels is called social commerce. Estimates suggest there were over 90 million U.S. social commerce buyers in 2021.

In 2022, the level of trust in social media platforms in the United States declined across all the observed platforms. Instagram saw the most significant decline in the index score, -5.9. LinkedIn and Reddit followed, with the trust index score showing a -5.8 and -5.7 decline. YouTube saw the lowest drop in trust level among the mentioned platforms, -2.8.

Facebook was a favorite social media platform for over 28 percent of Poles in the third quarter of 2024, a decrease compared to the previous year.

According to a telephone interview conducted in the United States in February 2021, 49 percent of respondents who used Facebook visited the social media platform several times per day, whilst 22 percent of users visited the site about once a day. Of those who used Snapchat, 45 percent of them used the mobile app several times a day. Regarding Twitter, 30 percent of respondents visited the online social networking service several times a day, whilst 53 percent reported to access it less frequently, meaning they used it a few times a week or every few weeks.

According to a survey conducted in 2021, Instagram was the top social medial platform used by high school students researching college, with 47 percent of students graduating from high school between 2021 and 2023 using Instagram for college planning. Instagram was also the top social media platform used by high school students in their daily lives.

According to a 2021 survey among social media users in Brazil, around 78 percent of respondents claimed to use these platforms for political discussion. Meanwhile, Facebook was appointed by 35 percent of respondents as their main network for political information, as YouTube and WhatsApp were mentioned by other 43 and 41 percent of respondents each as their main access channel for news in social media.

In 2021, global social media advertising spending stood at around 116 billion U.S. dollars. The source projected that this figure would more than double and exceed an all-time high of 262 billion by 2028.

Where to advertise in a sea of social media platforms?

While there are many regional differences when it comes to social media usage and accessibility, some platforms reign supreme among users and advertisers alike. As of 2022, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram were the most popular social networks worldwide. Thanks to their massive audiences, these Meta-owned properties also ranked among the leading social media platforms for marketers. What makes advertising via these channels so appealing is not only the prospect of boosting brand awareness and generating leads but also the possibility to strengthen brands’ relationships with consumers via direct communication.

Spotlight on influencer marketing

In addition to posting photos and videos on their social media accounts and interacting with followers, companies can also enlist the help of content creators to drive visibility and potentially unlock new audiences. Over the past few years, the global influencer marketing market value has expanded rapidly and is now sized at an estimated 16.4 billion U.S. dollars. Instagram remains the primary playground for this creator-driven form of online marketing, though apps like TikTok are also becoming more appealing to brands from around the world.

More than one half of respondents in Moldova reported using Facebook on a daily basis in 2021. Furthermore, nine percent used the social media platform several times per week. As for Instagram, nearly three out of ten Moldovan users accessed it daily. TikTok ranked third by the share of daily users.

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.

As of November 2021, Facebook had around 180 million users in the United States, maintaining its status as the most used social network, followed by Instagram with over 126 thousand users. TikTok, particularly popular with younger audiences ranked third, followed by image-based Pinterest. Social news aggregation and web content discussion website Reddit had an audience size of over 45 million in the U.S.

According to a 2021 online survey conducted in the United States, 37 percent of social media users have had their online profiles hacked. Overall, 77 percent of these hacking incidences occurred on Facebook, and 35 percent occurred on Instagram. Additionally, around a quarter of respondents reported that their Twitter accounts were hacked, whilst 23 percent said that their TikTok accounts had been hacked.