As of the third quarter of 2024, WhatsApp was the most active social network among internet users in the United Kingdom (UK), with 79.9 percent of internet users reporting use of the service. Facebook was very close behind, with a rate of 72.3 percent, followed by Facebook Messenger with 56.6 percent. YouTube’s broad audience in the United Kingdom YouTube reaches a broad audience in the UK, making it an attractive partner for advertisers of almost any product. More than 75 percent of individuals of every income bracket watch YouTube, with the likelihood of watching increasing with the pay-grade. Whether advertising basic items or luxury products, marketers should be able to connect with UK audiences through YouTube. There are almost no people in the UK to not use YouTube at least monthly. According to a survey conducted in the third quarter of 2020, 46 percent of respondents went on YouTube on a daily basis. Facebook in the United Kingdom  Facebook enjoys a healthy market position in the UK, holding an estimated  55 percent share of the market. The service attracted  50.6 million UK users during May 2021, and Facebook UK Limited  generated 1.1 billion British pounds in revenue  during 2019. The UK division of the company  posted an operating profit of 121.9 million British pounds that year. 

In November 2024, Meta's Facebook held approximately ** percent of the social network market in the United Kingdom, while Instagram accounted for approximately ***** percent. Overall, X held ***** percent of the social network market in the UK.

This industry includes social networking website publishers and developers. The industry does not include companies that predominantly develop blogs, games, internet content, messaging services, online dating websites, online recruitment websites, online forums and online videos.

In an online survey conducted during the third quarter of 2024, **** percent of internet users in the United Kingdom reported that WhatsApp was their favorite social media platform, whilst **** percent said that Facebook was their favorite. Overall, only around *** in *** users said that TikTok was their favorite social media service, even though brand awareness of the app is high in the UK.

In 2024, around ** percent of the population of the United Kingdom was active on social media. By 2028, it is expected that ** percent of the country's population will be using social media services. Social media's global reach As of April 2024, Northern and Western Europe possessed the highest rates of social network penetration globally, with **** and **** percent, respectively. Eastern and Middle Africa had the lowest coverage, with **** and *** percent. The global average was **** percent, which means that almost *** out of ***people around the world are using social networks. Other major platforms Although Meta continues to dominate the social media landscape in the UK, other social media brands are consistently getting more popular, especially with younger users. In 2024, video-sharing social media app TikTok had an awareness of over ** percent in the UK and a usage of over ** percent. Snapchat, owned by Snap Inc., had an awareness of around ** percent.

According to data from February 2025, Facebook was the most popular social network for news access in the United Kingdom, with ** percent of respondents using the service. YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) ranked second and third, with ** and ** percent of users respectively using the networks for news content.

Facebook is the most well-known social network among internet users in the UK, with a brand awareness of 96 percent. This crown is highly contested, with Instagram and YouTube being recognized by 95% of respondents each. TikTok reaches a brand awareness of 93%, while 90% of adult internet users in the United Kingdom know Snapchat.For this study, brand awareness was surveyed employing the concept of aided brand recognition, showing respondents both the brand's logo and the written brand name.

Forecast: Individuals Participating in Online Social Networks in East Midlands (UK) 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: 1000+ Employees data was reported at 90.300 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 85.200 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: 1000+ Employees data is updated yearly, averaging 82.200 % from Dec 2012 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 90.300 % in 2016 and a record low of 77.300 % in 2013. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: 1000+ Employees data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.S039: E Commerce: Proportion of Businesses Using Social Media: By Size of Business.

United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: 250-999 Employees data was reported at 78.100 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 75.900 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: 250-999 Employees data is updated yearly, averaging 71.700 % from Dec 2012 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 78.100 % in 2016 and a record low of 63.400 % in 2012. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: 250-999 Employees data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.S039: E Commerce: Proportion of Businesses Using Social Media: By Size of Business.

United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Utilities data was reported at 44.600 % in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 50.000 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Utilities data is updated yearly, averaging 39.400 % from Dec 2012 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 50.000 % in 2015 and a record low of 26.300 % in 2012. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Utilities data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.S040: E Commerce: Proportion of Businesses Using Social Media: By Industry.

United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks data was reported at 60.300 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 56.500 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks data is updated yearly, averaging 51.200 % from Dec 2012 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 60.300 % in 2016 and a record low of 42.200 % in 2013. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.S040: E Commerce: Proportion of Businesses Using Social Media: By Industry.

United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Information & Communication data was reported at 81.700 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 76.900 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Information & Communication data is updated yearly, averaging 76.900 % from Dec 2012 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 81.700 % in 2016 and a record low of 72.400 % in 2013. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Information & Communication data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.S040: E Commerce: Proportion of Businesses Using Social Media: By Industry.

United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Construction data was reported at 41.200 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 36.100 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Construction data is updated yearly, averaging 27.100 % from Dec 2012 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 41.200 % in 2016 and a record low of 18.600 % in 2012. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Construction data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.S040: E Commerce: Proportion of Businesses Using Social Media: By Industry.

We asked UK consumers about "Social network usage by brand" and found that ********** takes the top spot, while ****** is at the other end of the ranking.These results are based on a representative online survey conducted in 2025 among 25,844 consumers in the UK.

In 2008, the average human attention span was 12 seconds. Fast forward to 2025, and many studies suggest it's now hovering around 8 seconds, shorter than that of a goldfish. It’s no coincidence that during this same period, social media platforms surged to dominate how we consume content. Whether you're...

In the fourth quarter of 2022, TikTok was the most popular social media platform for Gen Z consumers to buy products from in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Facebook continued to be the preferred choice for older generations. Additionally, millennials displayed an equal preference for TikTok and Instagram, with ** percent of respondents stating that they had shopped through each platform.

This dataset contains ~11M tweets related to the 2019 United Kingdom General Election, published and collected between November 12, 2019, and December 12, 2019. In addition, we provide nodes and edges of the superspreader user similarity network, as described in the paper below.

Please, refer to the paper below for more details.

Nizzoli, L., Tardelli, S., Avvenuti, M., Cresci, S., & Tesconi, M. (2021). Coordinated Behavior on Social Media in 2019 UK General Election. In 15th International Conference on Web and Social Media. AAAI.

In detail, the dataset consists of:

• tweet-ids.csv.zip: a CSV file with the column "tweet_id," containing 11,264,820 tweet IDs related to the 2019 United Kingdom General Election, published and collected between November 12, 2019, and December 12, 2019.
• superspreader-nodes.csv.zip: a CSV file with the columns "id" and "cluster," relating to the nodes of the superspreader user similarity network mentioned in the paper.
• superspreader-edges.csv.zip: a CSV file with the columns "source," "target," and "weight," relating to the edges of the superspreader user similarity network mentioned in the paper.

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.

United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Transport & Storage data was reported at 39.200 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 35.400 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Transport & Storage data is updated yearly, averaging 35.400 % from Dec 2012 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 39.200 % in 2016 and a record low of 25.500 % in 2012. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: Transport & Storage data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United Kingdom – Table UK.S040: E Commerce: Proportion of Businesses Using Social Media: By Industry.