"Sent private messages" and "Liked posts by other users or followed people" are the top two answers among Indian consumers in our survey on the subject of "Most common social media activities".The survey was conducted online among ****** respondents in India, in 2025.

China was home to ove 1.18 bilion social media users in 2025, making it the country with the largest audience. It is expected that by 2030, the number of social media users in the country will exceed 1.3 billion. Additionally, India currently has around 874 billion users, and is estimated to reach 1.12 billion by 2023.

As of February 2025, 5.56 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, which amounted to 67.9 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.24 billion, or 63.9 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 20254. In The Netherlands, Norway and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of February 2025. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Eastern Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide – over 1.34 billion at the latest count. Southern Asia ranked second, with around 1.2 billion internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2024, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in African countries, with around a ten percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller usage gap between these two genders. As of 2024, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years old across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most significant usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group 15–24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

YouTube had an advertising reach of around *** million users across India as of January 2025. This was the largest audience reached via ads recorded in the country that year. Instagram and Facebook followed with approximately *** and *** million users respectively during the same period.

We asked Indian consumers about "Social network usage by brand" and found that "Instagram" takes the top spot, while "Tumblr" is at the other end of the ranking.These results are based on a representative online survey conducted in 2025 among ****** consumers in India.

The social media user penetration in India was forecast to continuously increase between 2023 and 2028 by 22.4 percentage points. According to this forecast in 2028, the penetration rate will have increased for the fifth consecutive year to 83.16 percent. Notably, the social media user penetration was continuously increasing over the past years.

Social media's influence in the United Kingdom continues to grow, with **** million active users as of February 2025, representing ** percent of the population. This penetration rate surpasses the global average of **** percent, positioning the UK as a leader in social media adoption. The country's high usage reflects a broader trend of increasing social media engagement worldwide, particularly in Northern and Western Europe. Global social media landscape The social media landscape is rapidly evolving, with China currently hosting over one billion users and India projected to become the largest social media audience by 2029. Notably, Nigeria is expected to see a staggering *** percent increase in its online networking audience between 2023 and 2029. In 2024, global social media users spent an average of *** minutes per day on social networks. Facebook is still the market leader Facebook is the most widely utilized social media platform globally, and India boasts *** million Facebook users, making it the leading country in terms of Facebook audience size. As of April 2024, it was found that men between the ages of ** and ** were the largest audience for Facebook, accounting for **** percent of global users. Furthermore, Facebooks second-largest audience base could be found with men aged 18 to 24 years.

According to a survey conducted by Rakuten Insight in February 2025 found that ** percent of respondents in the age group of 25 to 34 years old in India preferred Instagram for social commerce. By contrast, ** percent of respondents in the 55 years and above age group reported purchasing products from Facebook.

When asked about the different social networks used to access news as of 2025, a majority of the surveyed respondents in India stated *******, and ******** as their main sources at ** and ** percent, respectively. X (formerly Twitter) had the lowest popularity for news access among Indians in that year.

The introduction of the government’s Digital India initiative, hand in hand with the increasing internet penetration over the recent years, resulted in the country’s digital population surging to *********** active users as of February 2025. More than half of these were also active social media users. The traffic in the world’s second-largest internet market at this stage was largely dominated by mobile internet users. The causes and their effectsThe arrival of Reliance Jio services in 2007 provided people in the country with schemes and subsidies that were not only attractive but also easily affordable, irrespective of their income levels and socio-economic classes. The impact was almost instant, with over 60 percent of the mobile data traffic coming from Jio services in less than 10 years of its launch. The future holds greater promiseThe number of internet users has increased over the years in rural as well as urban areas. It seemed likely from previous trends that the launch of the Jio fixed line broadband service, called Gigafiber, might aid in the already increasing internet penetration across the country. Along with the demonetization in late 2016, digitization penetrated the country at a staggering rate, nearly ** percent in 2019.

Chinese citizens displayed a strong online presence, having approximately **** billion active social media users as of February 2025. Other Asia-Pacific countries and regions appeared to trail behind China in terms of their social media engagement. India and Indonesia, the second- and third-ranked countries in terms of number of active social media users, had *** million and *** million active social media users, respectively. Leading social media platforms Facebook reigns worldwide and in the Asia-Pacific region as the most-used social media site, having displayed an increasing number of daily active users. However, Asian social networks, such as WeChat and Douyin, have also gained immense popularity in the Asia-Pacific region by offering content and services tailored to APAC preferences. Acting not only as a messaging and social media service, WeChat is a platform for online shopping and payment services. The social networking site, owned by Tencent, was the sixth most used social media platform globally. A connected region The Asia-Pacific region has gone through a technological evolution and alongside the region, its citizens have willingly adopted this change. This is conveyed through the internet penetration rate, which has more than doubled since 2010 in Asia. A better internet infrastructure has catalyzed the emergence of social media throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Instagram was one of the leading social networks in India, with a far higher male user share compared to female users in January 2024. Out of the total users, the social networking site reported an advertising reach of around **** percent among male users and **** percent among female users. Instagram’s market position Instagram's market share in India's social media landscape has been on the rise, reaching nearly ** percent in 2024. This growth has solidified Instagram's position as the second-most popular social media platform in the country, trailing only Facebook. This growth is accompanied by robust influencer activity on the platform. Fashion and accessories emerged as the most popular product category among Indian Instagram influencers, with approximately *** million posts, highlighting Instagram's role as a hub for lifestyle and consumer-oriented content in India. User demographics The platform's popularity among younger demographics is evident, with millennials and Gen Z forming the majority of influencer audiences. As of 2023, nearly ** percent of this audience was aged 26 to 32. Moreover, ** percent of Instagram's user base falls within the 18 to 24 age group. The number of users on the platform is expected to grow further, potentially reaching nearly *** million by 2028. Despite the changing user demographics, this trend highlights Instagram's significance in India's digital marketing and influencer collaboration landscape.

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.

Which county has the most Facebook users? There are more than 383 million Facebook users in India alone, making it the leading country in terms of Facebook audience size. To put this into context, if India’s Facebook audience were a country, then it would be ranked third in terms of largest population worldwide. Apart from India, there are several other markets with more than 100 million Facebook users each: The United States, Indonesia, and Brazil with 196.9 million, 122.3 million, and 111.65 million Facebook users respectively. Facebook – the most used social media Meta, the company that was previously called Facebook, owns four of the most popular social media platforms worldwide, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram. As of the third quarter of 2021, there were around 3.5 billion cumulative monthly users of the company’s products worldwide. With around 2.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social media worldwide. With an audience of this scale, it is no surprise that the vast majority of Facebook’s revenue is generated through advertising. Facebook usage by device As of July 2021, it was found that 98.5 percent of active users accessed their Facebook account from mobile devices. In fact, almost 81.8 percent of Facebook audiences worldwide access the platform only via mobile phone. Facebook is not only available through mobile browser as the company has published several mobile apps for users to access their products and services. As of the third quarter 2021, the four core Meta products were leading the ranking of most downloaded mobile apps worldwide, with WhatsApp amassing approximately six billion downloads.

As of February 2025, India had a total of 413.85 million Instagram users, the largest Instagram audience in the world. The United States had 171.7 million users, and Brazil had 140.7 million. Indonesia, Turkey, and Japan ranked in fourth, fifth and sixth position, respectively. Kazakhstan is the leading country for Instagram audience reach, with 86.2 percent of the population using the social media service. Turkey came in second, with a penetration rate of 85.5 percent and Uruguay ranked third, with 87.1 percent, followed closely by the UAE, Brazil, and Bahrain. It took Instagram 11.2 years to reach the milestone of 2 billion monthly active users worldwide. WhatsApp, also owned by Meta, took 11 years, whilst Facebook took 13.3 years and YouTube took just over 14 years. Instagram’s demographics in the United States As of March 2025, Instagram was the fourth most visited social media service in the United States, after Facebook, Pinterest and X. Out of TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, TikTok was the most used of all three platforms by Generation Z. Overall, 57 percent of Gen Z social media users used Instagram in 2021, down from 61 percent in 2020 and 64 percent in 2019. Instagram finds most popularity with those in the 25 to 34 year age group, and as of January 2025, roughly 28.3 of all users in the United States belonged to this age group. The social media app was also more likely to be used by women. Most followed accounts on Instagram Instagram’s official account had the most followers as of April 2024 with over 672 million followers. Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) had over 628 million followers on the platform, while the Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi (@leomessi) had over 502 million followers. The Instagram accounts of the American singer and actress Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) and the media personality and makeup mogul Kylie Jenner (@kyliejenner) had over 400 million followers each.

In 2022, the number of digital only consumers in India's media and entertainment sector was about *********** users. While the number of digital only customers has developed a growing trend since 2017 and peaked to ********** users in 2021.

While Indians between 12 and 34 years dominated internet use from 2013 to 2019 with about 65 percent of the total market, this was projected to change by 2025. Between 2019 and 2025, it was estimated that age group 35 years and older would make up ** percent of internet usage in India. Gender and internet Among the total internet users in the country, it was found that only about ** percent were female users. While this was expected to change to ** percent male users and ** percent female users by 2020, it still showed a gender gap in internet accessibility in the south-Asian country. While several factors lead to this digital gender gap, economic and socio-cultural barriers stand out as the most compelling reasons. Older Indians part of digitalization The median age of India’s population was around 27 years in 2015, echoing the range of the country’s majority internet user base. The estimated shift, however, in the years to come would be the successful efforts towards digitalizing India. If done right, this would propel older adults to adopt and master new media technologies in their daily activities beyond social media and communication, including the use of financial services.

A survey conducted by Rakuten Insight in February 2025 reported that the majority of Indian respondents, 44 percent, had purchased regularly through social media platforms. In comparison, about 18 percent of respondents had never purchased anything through social media.

The popular photo-sharing social networking app, Instagram, had the second highest share in India's mobile social media market with around ** percent as of March 2025. Its sister platform, Facebook, had the highest share in the Indian mobile market that year.

As of January 2025, Facebook accounted for around ** percent of the social media market across Asia. Comparatively, Instagram accounted for about ** percent of the social media market in Asia. Meta Platforms, Inc Meta Platforms, Inc., formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is a global technology conglomerate that owns a vast social media portfolio, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. Facebook remains one of the world’s most popular social networks, connecting users for sharing content and building communities. Instagram focuses on photo and video sharing, including features like Stories and Reels. In 2024, Meta’s annual revenue reached ***** billion U.S. dollars, with most of its revenue coming from advertising. Meta generated approximately *** billion U.S. dollars in revenue from advertisements in that year. Meta’s market revenue and user base in APAC In 2024, Meta’s revenue from the Asia-Pacific region amounted to nearly ** billion U.S. dollars. The growing mobile-first internet user base in Asia continues to drive engagement on Meta's platforms, solidifying its dominance in the region. Asian countries such as India and Indonesia have some of the highest numbers of Facebook users globally. India also leads globally in Instagram users, reflecting the region's significant contribution to Meta's success.