During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, approximately 67 percent reported plans to increase their use of Instagram for video marketing purposes in the near future. Similarly, 66 percent said they would use YouTube more for that purpose. According to the same study, increased exposure and traffic were the leading benefits of social media marketing worldwide.

In recent years, video has become one of the most popular online formats, spanning from educational content to product reviews. During the third quarter of 2024, music videos recorded the highest category reach, with almost half of internet users worldwide reporting to watch music videos online each week. Social video engagement In recent years, YouTube and TikTok have become two of the most important social media platforms for global users, as video content commands high levels of engagement. In 2024, users worldwide spent approximately 28.4 hours using the YouTube mobile app per month. Additionally, the leading hashtags used by content creators on TikTok have amassed billions of views: as of January 2024, the TikTok hashtag “fyp” or “for you page” had reached 55 and 35 billion post views, respectively. Watching content: what device do users prefer? In 2023, televisions were the most used devices for global viewers to watch video-on-demand (VOD), with 55 percent of respondents reporting using these devices. In comparison, 13 percent of respondents reported using smartphones. Age group and generation are factors impacting viewership habits and device preferences, as younger users appear to prefer using their smartphones to consume content. According to a March 2024 survey, U.S. users aged 18-34 years were more likely to watch video content on smartphones than any other devices. By comparison, connected TVs were particularly popular for the online video audience aged 35 and older.

In 2024, YouTube was the most popular social video platforms for users in the United States, with an estimated viewership of 211 million viewers. Facebook ranked second, while Instagram had approximately 143 million users engaging with the platform's Reels and posts on a monthly basis. TikTok was estimated to have a monthly audience of 112 million users in the examined period.

TikTok was the most used social media platforms to watch short-form videos among U.S. users, with approximately 40 percent of respondents reporting to use the popular Chinese-developed social media as their preferred platform. YouTube Shorts ranked second, with 23 percent of respondents, while Instagram Reels ranked third. Snapchat Spotlight only gained the attention of approximately three percent of respondents.

In 2024, YouTube counted approximately 60 million monthly users aged between 35 and 54 in the United States. In comparison, U.S. viewers younger than 18 amounted to around 45 million. Meanwhile, TikTok's main audience was aged between 18 and 34 years, as approximately 43 million users of that age visited the platform monthly. Facebook was particularly popular among users aged 35 and older, while less than 10 million users younger than 18 engaged with the platform on a monthly basis.

In 2023, over 56 percent of the time spent on social media platforms for users in the United States was spent on social video activities. This represents an increase from the previous year, when the time spent engaging with social video among U.S. users was of around 53.3 percent, compared to 46.7 percent of the total social media time spent on other social network activities.

According to a survey of internet users in the United States, as of November 2021, YouTube was the preferred social media platform to watch short-form videos, with around 78 percent of respondents reporting to use the popular video platform to watch this type of content. Facebook followed, with more than six in 10 respondents indicating they watch short-form videos on the platform. TikTok, which introduced only in February 2022 the possibility for users to upload videos up to 10 minutes long, was indicated by 54 percent of respondents as their preferred platform to watch short-form video content.

In 2022, TikTok's estimated share in global video advertising revenue stood at seven percent. The source projected it would double by 2027. Additionally, TikTok Douyin (the same app in China) held a share of 15 percent in 2022 and was expected to grow to 23 percent in the same period. Combined, the apps would account for 37 percent of the total in 2027.

The share of people watching videos on social media e.g. Youtube, Facebook in Denmark increased by two percentage points (+12.5 percent) in the fourth quarter of 2023 in comparison to the previous quarter. With 18 percent, the share thereby reached its highest value in the observed period.

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2024, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 143 minutes per day, down from 151 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 three hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just two 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.

According to a survey of internet users conducted in June 2023 in the United Kingdom, 77 percent of users aged between 25 and 44 years reported using Facebook at least monthly, while over 85 percent of users in the same age reported using YouTube monthly. Overall, 74 percent of social media users aged between 13 and 17 years reported engaging with TikTok, while 90 percent reported engaging with YouTube, while Instagram was used by 53 percent of respondents in the same demographic.

According to a survey of internet users conducted in June 2023 in the United Kingdom, 80 percent of men reported using YouTube at least monthly, while 70 percent of women reported similar consumption trends. Among women, Facebook was the most used social media platform to consume video content - as approximately 74 percent of women in the UK reported engaging with the platform monthly.

In 2024, social video platforms and video content recorded around 52 minutes of daily engagement on average among users in the United States. The amount of time spent watching social video among users in the country was projected to reach 48 minutes per day in 2023, and about daily 57 minutes by the end of 2028.

In 2020, the Shade Room had the highest user engagement on owned video content with 3.3 billion total video content actions (reactions, comments, shares, retweets and likes). Second ranked was the music platform Official WorldStarHipHop with roughly one billion actions on owned video content published on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

As of July 2023, short videos were the most favourite social media activity among Generation Z adults in the United States, as more than 60 percent of respondents reported to have watched them. Conversely, approximately 43 percent of Gen Z adults watched livestream videos. Internet users in the United States liked to watch short videos on different platforms, but TikTok was the most popular.

It was found that adults in the United Kingdom engage with social media equally as much as with video streaming platforms. For example as of May 2023, UK TikTok users spent 58 minutes per day with the social network while Netflix users in the country also spent the same amount of time using the video streaming service daily. Video viewing - ad-supported options are driving consumption Since 2021, the reach of video-on-demand subscriptions in the United Kingdom has been oscillating around 19 million households. The viewership boom that started during the coronavirus outbreak has now transitioned into steady audience numbers. Video streaming in the UK remains strong, however, the market is pivoting from premium models to free ad-supported ones such as broadcaster video-on-demand (BVOD). The data shows that the viewership of BVOD services surpassed the SVOD viewer-base. Among many BVOD platforms, BBC iPlayer is by far the most popular ad-supported service in the UK, followed by ITV and All 4, showing the prevalence of local players. However, international services, such as Pluto TV, are slowly entering the market as well. In fact, while Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are losing viewer interest, Pluto TV is one of the platforms that experienced an increase in total content viewing hours between 2022 and 2023, indicating its growth potential.

During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, approximately 44 percent said Facebook was the most important social media platform. Instagram and LinkedIn followed, respectively mentioned by 25 and 21 percent of respondents. Why marketers use social media as a branding channel According to the same study, the leading benefits of social media marketing were increased exposure and traffic. In other words, mastering a brand's presence on such platforms can make a company's products and services known across multiple demographics as well as generate traffic for its online sales. Marketers' favorite social media platforms That survey also revealed that business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketers' top social media can vary. While B2C professionals bet on Facebook and its still massive usage rate, B2B strategists focus on LinkedIn, where companies can see and be seen. However, the social media video platforms in which marketers wanted to invest more were Instagram and YouTube.

Youtube was the social media website with 100 percent of video posts on Russian internet (RuNet), thus leading the ranking. Facebook followed with a share of roughly 20 percent of video publications. Vkontakte took the fifth position with approximately six percent of total posts including video in March 2018.

This statistic presents the distribution of posts on Instagram as of June 2019, sorted by type. According to the source, 18 percent of posts on Instagram were video posts. Image posts accounted for the majority of content on the social network.

According to a survey conducted in June 2023, adults in the United States spent more time per day on TikTok than on any other leading social media platform. Overall, respondents reported spending an average of 53.8 minutes per day on the social video app. YouTube and Twitter ranked second and third, each with an average of 48 minutes and 34 minutes spent on the platforms per day, respectively.

U.S. teens have time for certain platforms

Different social media platforms attract different demographics, with teenagers in the United States being more drawn to TikTok and YouTube over Facebook. In 2023, teenagers in the United States spent an average of almost two hours on YouTube and 1.5 hours on TikTok every day, 1451257 while Facebook was used by teens for less than half an hour per day. Furthermore, social media habits differ between genders, as teen girls were more likely to spend more time than boys on Instagram.

TikTok is king for teens and Gen Z

Although spending 1.5 hours on the Generation Z app of choice may sound rather modest, some TikTok users devote much more of their time to the platform . According to a survey conducted in the United States in 2022, around eight percent of teenagers in the United States spent over five hours a day on TikTok. 1417187 whereas another 22 percent reported spending between two and three hours daily on the video-based app.