In 2022, the number of global social media audiences increased by **** percent compared to the previous year. Worldwide social network user growth is projected to slow down to **** percent by 2027. There are currently over *** billion social media users worldwide.

In 2022, the penetration rate of social media reached around **** percent of the population in China. Despite global social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube being blocked by the “Great Firewall”, Chinese homegrown equivalents such as WeChat, Weibo, and Youku Tudou have captured millions of users in the country.

How active are Chinese social media users? In 2023, the number of social network users was projected to reach **** billion. Social media plays a huge role among Chinese internet users. During the third quarter of 2021, Chinese netizens spent circa *** minutes on average per day on the internet. Sites such as WeChat and Sina Weibo each held a bulk of the share of internet users in China.

What is the role of social media in China?

For the end user, social networking sites allow for the establishment and reinforcing of social relationships by sharing photos, videos, posts and statuses. Microblogging has become an indispensable tool to share news across China with over a hundred million words and photos each posted daily. On the business end, social media also presents an attractive avenue for advertising with estimated ad spending surpassing 100 billion yuan in 2022.

Over the forecast period until 2028, the reach by social networks is forecast to exhibit fluctuations amongst the ten measured segments. Overall, the indicator appears to follow a positive trend, as there are more increasing values than decreasing values expected in the individual segments until 2028. Among them, the segment Facebook achieves the relatively highest value throughout the entire period, reaching ***** million users. Find further statistics on other topics such as a comparison of the social network reach in Europe and a comparison of the ad spending in the United Kingdom.The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Over the last two observations, the reach by social network is forecast to significantly increase in all segments. Particularly striking is the exceptionally strong increase of the segment Instagram towards the end of the forecast period. The value amounting to *** million users stands out significantly from the average changes, which are estimated at **** million users. Find further statistics on other topics such as a comparison of the ad spending in the United Kingdom and a comparison of the desktop & mobile ad spending share in the United States.The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Cristiano Ronaldo has one of the most popular Instagram accounts as of April 2024.

              The Portuguese footballer is the most-followed person on the photo sharing app platform with 628 million followers. Instagram's own account was ranked first with roughly 672 million followers.

              How popular is Instagram?

              Instagram is a photo-sharing social networking service that enables users to take pictures and edit them with filters. The platform allows users to post and share their images online and directly with their friends and followers on the social network. The cross-platform app reached one billion monthly active users in mid-2018. In 2020, there were over 114 million Instagram users in the United States and experts project this figure to surpass 127 million users in 2023.

              Who uses Instagram?

              Instagram audiences are predominantly young – recent data states that almost 60 percent of U.S. Instagram users are aged 34 years or younger. Fall 2020 data reveals that Instagram is also one of the most popular social media for teens and one of the social networks with the biggest reach among teens in the United States.

              Celebrity influencers on Instagram
              Many celebrities and athletes are brand spokespeople and generate additional income with social media advertising and sponsored content. Unsurprisingly, Ronaldo ranked first again, as the average media value of one of his Instagram posts was 985,441 U.S. dollars.

This statistic shows the number of social media users in Hong Kong between 2018 and 2023, with projections up until 2029. In 2023, there were around **** million social media users in Hong Kong and the number was expected to approach *** million by 2029.

How many people use social media? Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities. In 2024, over **** ******* people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to over *** 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 ** 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 *** minutes per day on social media and messaging apps, an increase of ** 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 *** billion registered accounts and currently boasts approximately *** 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 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.

The number of social media users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total *** million users (+**** percent). After the eleventh 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 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).

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.

Over the forecast period until 2028, the reach by social network is forecast to exhibit fluctuations among the 11 segments. In general, the indicator appears to exhibit a positive trend, with more segments showing increasing values rather than decreasing values until 2028. Among them, the segment Facebook attains the highest value throughout the entire period, reaching 32.82 million users. Find further statistics on other topics such as a comparison of the ad spending in Spain and a comparison of the ad spending in the United Kingdom.The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The reach of social networks in Brazil is forecast to experience significant growth in all segments in 2028. Particularly striking is the exceptionally strong increase of the segment Instagram towards the end of the forecast period, which is predicted to reach over *** million users by 2029. Find further statistics on other topics such as a comparison of the social network reach in Spain and a comparison of the ad spending in the world.The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Significant fluctuations are estimated for all segments over the forecast period for the reach by social network. Overall, the indicator appears to follow a positive trend, as there are more increasing values than decreasing values expected in the individual segments until 2028. Among them, the segment Facebook achieves the relatively highest value throughout the entire period, reaching ***** million users. Find further statistics on other topics such as a comparison of the ad spending in Spain and a comparison of the ad spending in the United States. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

In 2022, there were around **** billion social media users in China. Despite Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter being blocked in the country, local social networking sites such as WeChat and Weibo have been attracting millions of users, making China the world’s biggest social media market.

What is the role of social media in China? Around ** percent of the Chinese population use internet. Social networking plays a huge role among netizens, especially the younger generation. Chinese social media, just like Western equivalents, not only serves as a way to communicate online, but also as one of the main sources of news and entertainment, e-payments, shopping advisors, and dating channels. In 2021, over ** percent of surveyed social media users said they mostly appreciated that social networks help them to keep in touch with friends and family, but also share their life moments and thoughts.

What are the most popular social media platforms?

WeChat (Weixin in Chinese) is by far the most commonly seen social app in the country, used for anything from texting/calling to photo and video sharing, dating, financial services, game-playing, shopping, ride hailing, and so on. However, Chinese social media scene is quite diverse and dynamic, therefore, it is not just about WeChat. Instant messaging app Tencent QQ, microblogging site Weibo, video sharing app Youku Tudou, short-form video app Douyin (aka TikTok), photo editing and sharing app Meitu, restaurant recommendation and food ordering platform Meituan, Quora equivalent Zhihu, and dating app Momo are just a few among the most popular Chinese social media examples.

This statistic presents the average number of social media accounts per internet user from 2013 to 2018. According to the survey findings, internet user in 2018 had an average of *** social media accounts, up from *** social media accounts in 2014.

Over the last two observations, the reach by social network is forecast to significantly increase in all segments. Comparing the ten different segments for the year 2028, the segment 'Facebook' leads the ranking with ***** million users. Contrastingly, 'Tumblr' is ranked last, with **** million users. Their difference, compared to Facebook, lies at ***** million users. Find further statistics on other topics such as a comparison of the ad spending in Germany and a comparison of the ad spending in Canada. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

Significant fluctuations are estimated for all segments over the forecast period for the reach by social network. Comparing the ten different segments for the year 2028, the segment 'Facebook' leads the ranking with 15.45 million users. Contrastingly, 'Tumblr' is ranked last, with 0.15 million users. Their difference, compared to Facebook, lies at 15.3 million users. Find further statistics on other topics such as a comparison of the ad spending growth in the United States and a comparison of the ad spending in France. The Statista Market Insights cover a broad range of additional markets.

The number of social media users in the United States was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2029 by in total 26 million users (+8.55 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the social media user base is estimated to reach 330.07 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 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).

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2025, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 141 minutes per day, down from 143 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 3 hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just 2 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.

This statistic presents the social networking reach in Hong Kong from 2018 to 2023, with projections up to 2029. In 2023, around **** percent of the population in Hong Kong used social media. In 2029, this share is projected to reach ** percent.