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.

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 statistic shows the social network user growth rate on social networks in China between 2016 and 2021. As of 2021, the number of social network users increased by 5.6 percent compared to the previous year. Chinese internet users have about eight social media accounts on average.

This statistic shows the user share of the most popular social media platforms among 13 to 17-year-olds in Finland in 2015. During the period under survey, roughly 75 percent of the respondents stated they used the social media platform Facebook.

This statistic presents the daily social network usage rate in the Asia Pacific region as of July 2015, sorted by country. During the survey period, it was found that 78 percent of internet users in Thailand went online every day.

In Portugal, the share of people aged 18 years old who use social media for six hours or more per day totaled 27.9 percent, during weekdays, and 23.7 percent during the weekend. By 2023, 15 percent of young individuals used social media for six hours or more per day.

This statistic presents the social networking reach in Australia from 2015 to 2022. In 2017, 63.07 percent of the population in the country accessed social media. In 2022, this share is projected to reach 64.53 percent.

This statistic shows data on the use of different social media channels among commercial enterprises in Germany from 2015 to 2016. During the 2016 survey period it was found that 39 percent of responding companies reported to run a corporate blog.

In 2019, nearly eight out of ten respondents from Belgium's Dutch-speaking region Flanders said they had used Facebook during the past month. In 2019, over seven million people in Belgium used Facebook, a number that makes up around 60 percent of the country's population. Downloads of the Facebook app in Belgium decreased in 2018, especially in on the Google Play Store. It was downloaded approximately 495,000 times through the Apple App Store and roughly 511,000 times on the Google Play Store.

This statistic shows the share of U.S. campers in 2015, by how they use social media on a camping trip. During the survey, 45 percent of the respondents stated that they share photos or videos on social media whilst camping.

Between 2015 and 2023, the share of enterprises in the European Union (EU) using social media increased from 34.1 percent to 58.9 percent. Overall, for the measured time period, social networks have been a more utilized platform for EU enterprises than Multimedia sharing websites and blogs and/or microblogs.

The statistic gives information on the average time engaged with news articles on a smartphone in the United States as of September 2015, sorted by article length and the social media source. According to the source, long-form articles found on Twitter were engaged with for an average of 133 seconds.

In 2023, 60.9 percent of enterprises in the European Union were using social media for image building, marketing purposes, gaining insights from customers, or recruitment. The use of social media was most popular among enterprises in Malta, Norway, Denmark, and Finland, and was least used in Bulgaria, Turkey, Romania and Slovakia.

This statistic presents a ranking of the most popular social networks in South Korea according to social media users. As of December 2015, 59.8 percent of survey respondents named Facebook as their most-used social networking service.

This statistic shows the share of North American campers from 2015 to 2018, by how they use social media on a camping trip. During the 2018 survey, 53 percent of the respondents stated that they share photos or videos on social media while camping.

With the ease of internet access, the number of social media users in India stood at 518 million in 2020. Furthermore, the social network users in the country were expected to be almost 1.5 billion in 2040. Facebook remained the popular choice among the social media platforms as of 2020.

What was the attraction and who was attracted to it?

The Indian Premier League, an annual cricket tournament conducted across major cities in the country might hold the answer. The IPL, one in many cricketing events followed religiously in India, had the highest attendance among all cricket leagues worldwide. Apart from the attendance, fans seemed to be keen on updates about their favorite teams. The IPL teams registered over 59 million likes on Facebook alone and more than 81 million followers on Twitter. Most of the Facebook usage came from the younger generation, aged between 18-24 years to be precise, with over 97 million users in 2018.

How was this achieved?

Increased availability of internet connections and access in recent years, propelled by the central government's Digital India initiative was directly proportional in the growth of social media users. Internet penetration had been on the rise with over 34 percent of the Indians being able to access the internet in 2017, which made the South Asian country the second largest market globally after China.

The statistic displays the results of a survey regarding the average time spent per day by young adults on social media in India in 2015. Approximately 17 percent of young adults in the country spent between two and four hours on social media daily on average.

The daily social media access of internet users in Asia Pacific as of July 2015, broken down by country can be found here.

This statistic shows the results of a survey on the usage of online networks for human resources marketing and recruiting in companies in Germany in 2015. The survey found that 71 percent of responding companies stated that they used Facebook.

This statistic shows the types of art shared by U.S. adults on social media platforms in 2015. During the survey, 19 percent of the respondents stated that they shared videos of others doing something artistic like playing an instrument, singing or acting.

This statistic shows the most popular social networking services of South Korean SNS users aged 6 and over in 2015. During the survey period, it was found that 88.4 social media users accessed profile-based networking services.