YouTube has emerged as the dominant social media platform for driving traffic to Amazon.com, accounting for nearly ** percent of referrals to the e-commerce platform in December 2023. Facebook.com and Twitter.com followed, contributing about *** and **** percent of social media referrals respectively, while Reddit and WhatsApp rounded out the top five sources. Amazon's dominance Amazon's position as the leading online retailer in the United States is evident in its traffic and sales figures. In December 2023, Amazon still recorded an impressive ****billion combined visits. The company's financial performance remains strong, with a net income of approximately **** billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2024, up from the previous quarters. Mobile presence Amazon's mobile presence continues to grow, with its shopping app downloads reaching a nine-year peak in August 2022 at approximately ** million. As of July 2024, the Amazon Shopping app reached over ** million downloads across iOS and Android platforms. That month, Amazon’s shopping app was the most popular app published by the e-commerce and tech giant.
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.
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.
As of March 2024, Youtube.com accounted for nearly 43 of social media referral traffic to Facebook.com. Facebook's second, third and fourth-largest social media traffic driver were messenger.com, web.whatsapp.com, and instagram.com, each generating over 12 percent of social media traffic to the social network. Overall, social media accounted for 1.95 percent of traffic referrals to Facebook.com.
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.
In December 2023, Pinterest was the top social media traffic referrer to target.com, responsible for 20 percent of referrals to Target's website. In second place was Reddit, with approximately 21 percent, followed closely by YouTube with about 19 percent.
As of March 2024, Reddit.com accounted for 34.52 percent of social media referral traffic to Wikipedia.org. The website's second-largest social media traffic driver was YouTube.com, which generated 29.6 percent of social media traffic to the platform.
Instagram’s most popular post
As of April 2024, the most popular post on Instagram was Lionel Messi and his teammates after winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, posted by the account @leomessi. Messi's post, which racked up over 61 million likes within a day, knocked off the reigning post, which was 'Photo of an Egg'. Originally posted in January 2021, 'Photo of an Egg' surpassed the world’s most popular Instagram post at that time, which was a photo by Kylie Jenner’s daughter totaling 18 million likes.
After several cryptic posts published by the account, World Record Egg revealed itself to be a part of a mental health campaign aimed at the pressures of social media use.
Instagram’s most popular accounts
As of April 2024, the official Instagram account @instagram had the most followers of any account on the platform, with 672 million followers. Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) was the most followed individual with 628 million followers, while Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) was the most followed woman on the platform with 429 million. Additionally, Inter Miami CF striker Lionel Messi (@leomessi) had a total of 502 million. Celebrities such as The Rock, Kylie Jenner, and Ariana Grande all had over 380 million followers each.
Instagram influencers
In the United States, the leading content category of Instagram influencers was lifestyle, with 15.25 percent of influencers creating lifestyle content in 2021. Music ranked in second place with 10.96 percent, followed by family with 8.24 percent. Having a large audience can be very lucrative: Instagram influencers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom with over 90,000 followers made around 1,221 US dollars per post.
Instagram around the globe
Instagram’s worldwide popularity continues to grow, and India is the leading country in terms of number of users, with over 362.9 million users as of January 2024. The United States had 169.65 million Instagram users and Brazil had 134.6 million users. The social media platform was also very popular in Indonesia and Turkey, with 100.9 and 57.1, respectively. As of January 2024, Instagram was the fourth most popular social network in the world, behind Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp.
As of March 2024, youtube.com accounted for 37 percent of social media referral traffic to Instagram.com. Instagram's second-largest social media traffic driver was twitter.com, which generated 27.72 percent of social media traffic to the photo and video-sharing platform. Social media accounted for 6.29 percent of traffic to Instagram.com.
In 2024, Facebook was the leading social media platform in most of the Southeast Asian countries in terms of traffic generation to other websites, with the highest share in Timor-Leste at around 97 percent. YouTube, X (Twitter), Instagram, and Pinterest were other platforms that had significant social media traffic shares in Southeast Asian markets that year. Social media advertising and web traffic referrals Traffic referrals from social media are crucial in social media advertising. Links shared on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter help direct potential customers to a brand’s website or landing page. This increases exposure, website visits, and conversions, such as sales or leads, which are key benefits of social media marketing according to marketers. Traffic referrals also serve as an important tool for advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns. Furthermore, by analyzing which platforms and content generate the most traffic, businesses can refine their strategies to focus on the highest-performing channels. Social media advertising – a multibillion-dollar business Revenue from social media advertising has continued to rise rapidly. This growth was driven by the ability to track user behavior, refine ad targeting, and deliver highly personalized content. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok generate billions of dollars of ad revenue annually. The owner of Facebook and Instagram, Meta Platforms’s annual advertising revenue exceeded 160 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Countries such as China, Japan, and Australia are among the largest social media advertising markets in the Asia-Pacific region, with China’s projected social media ad spend reaching nearly 97 billion U.S. dollars in 2025.
In Australia in 2024, Facebook was the leading source of web traffic referrals, driving 65 percent of clicks or taps to third-party websites. In comparison, Instagram accounted for 11.6 percent, while Pinterest contributed 9.2 percent.
As of April 2024, it was found that men between the ages of 25 and 34 years made up Facebook largest audience, accounting for 18.4 percent of global users. Additionally, Facebook's second largest audience base could be found with men aged 18 to 24 years.
Facebook connects the world
Founded in 2004 and going public in 2012, Facebook is one of the biggest internet companies in the world with influence that goes beyond social media. It is widely considered as one of the Big Four tech companies, along with Google, Apple, and Amazon (all together known under the acronym GAFA). Facebook is the most popular social network worldwide and the company also owns three other billion-user properties: mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger,
as well as photo-sharing app Instagram. Facebook usersThe vast majority of Facebook users connect to the social network via mobile devices. This is unsurprising, as Facebook has many users in mobile-first online markets. Currently, India ranks first in terms of Facebook audience size with 378 million users. The United States, Brazil, and Indonesia also all have more than 100 million Facebook users each.
In December 2023, YouTube accounted for over one-third of referral traffic to the fashion marketplace zalando.de. The multinational e-commerce company's second-largest source of referral traffic was Facebook, accounting for 11.75 percent, followed by Web WhatsApp with 3.11 percent.
A global study found that the number of referrals to news and media sites from Facebook fell from 2.3 billion in December 2022 to as low as 1.2 billion in November 2023, marking a 48 percent decline year on year. X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram also saw decreases in aggregate traffic to news and media properties.
As of February 2025, YouTube accounted for over 55 percent of social media referral traffic to video streaming platform Twitch.tv. Twitch's second-largest social media traffic driver was X, which generated more than 18 percent of social media traffic to Twitch.
As of March 2024, youtube.com accounted for over 37.52 percent of social media referral traffic to LinkedIn.com. LinkedIn's second-largest social media traffic driver was twitter.com, which generated more than 16 percent of social media traffic to the professional networking platform. Overall, social media accounted for 0.78 percent of traffic to LinkedIn.com.
In December 2023, the global platform of Amazon Business registered more than ** percent of its social media referral traffic from YouTube. The B2B marketplace registered the second-largest source of referral traffic from LinkedIn, accounting for roughly ** percent.
As of March 2024, Twitter.com accounted for over 25.6 percent of social media referral traffic to Tumblr.com. Tumblr's second-largest social media traffic driver was youtube.com, which generated more than 19.9 percent of social media traffic to Tumblr. Overall, social media referrals made up 7.63 percent of the web traffic to the platform.
In December 2023, the Spanish platform of Zalando got more than 40 percent of its social media referral traffic from YouTube. Zalando's second-largest social media referral source was the desktop version of facebook.com, accounting for 34 percent overall. Meanwhile, the social media platform Twitter accounted for 5.46 percent of referral traffic to zalando.es.
As of March 2024, YouTube.com accounted for over 37.5 percent of social media referral traffic to Pinterest.com. Pinterest's second-largest social media traffic driver were web.whatsapp.com and facebook.com, each generating more than 8.41 and 8.05 percent of social media traffic to Pinterest.
YouTube has emerged as the dominant social media platform for driving traffic to Amazon.com, accounting for nearly ** percent of referrals to the e-commerce platform in December 2023. Facebook.com and Twitter.com followed, contributing about *** and **** percent of social media referrals respectively, while Reddit and WhatsApp rounded out the top five sources. Amazon's dominance Amazon's position as the leading online retailer in the United States is evident in its traffic and sales figures. In December 2023, Amazon still recorded an impressive ****billion combined visits. The company's financial performance remains strong, with a net income of approximately **** billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter of 2024, up from the previous quarters. Mobile presence Amazon's mobile presence continues to grow, with its shopping app downloads reaching a nine-year peak in August 2022 at approximately ** million. As of July 2024, the Amazon Shopping app reached over ** million downloads across iOS and Android platforms. That month, Amazon’s shopping app was the most popular app published by the e-commerce and tech giant.