Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently sits at more than three billion monthly active users. Meta Platforms owns four of the biggest social media platforms, all with more than one billion monthly active users each: Facebook (core platform), WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. In the third quarter of 2023, Facebook reported around four billion monthly core Family product users. The United States and China account for the most high-profile social platforms Most top ranked social networks with more than 100 million users originated in the United States, but services like Chinese social networks WeChat, QQ or video sharing app Douyin have also garnered mainstream appeal in their respective regions due to local context and content. Douyin’s popularity has led to the platform releasing an international version of its network: a little app called TikTok. How many people use social media? The leading social networks are usually available in multiple languages and enable users to connect with friends or people across geographical, political, or economic borders. In 2025, social networking sites are estimated to reach 5.42 billion users and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction in previously underserved markets.

In the first six months of 2022, American TikTok personality Charlie D'Amelio saw her channel grow by almost 733.5 million likes, ranking first among the English-language creators for audiences on TikTok based on likes gained. Maja Knight ranked second with roughly 588 million likes gained between January and June 2022. Despite surpassing Charlie D'Amelio in June 2022 as the most followed creator on TikTok, Khaby Lame ranked fourth, with an increase of 439 million likes on his TikTok channel in the examined period.

In March 2025, Facebook accounted for 56 percent of all social media site visits in the United States, confirming its position as the leading social media website by far. Other social media platforms, despite their popularity, had to make do with smaller shares of visits across desktop, mobile, and tablet devices combined. Pinterest ranked second with 16.73 percent of all U.S. social media site visits, while X (previously Twitter) accounted for 11.73 percent of the total visits in the country. Additionally, the U.S. is home to the third largest social media audience worldwide. Facebook: mobile vs desktop usage At the beginning of 2022, around 81 percent of Facebook users across the globe were using the platform’s social networking services exclusively via mobile phone, while only 1.5 percent reported using their desktop or laptop devices. In September 2022, three Facebook Inc. products occupied some of the leading positions as most downloaded social networking apps on the Apple App Store in the United States. WhatsApp’s messaging platform ranked second with more than 1.9 million downloads, while Facebook and the instant-messaging service Messenger followed ranking third and fifth with 1,3 million and 1.03 million downloads respectively. Social media evolution Between 2012 and 2024, the daily time spent on social networks worldwide experienced an almost constant increase, with users reaching an average of 151 minutes per day in 2023, with a decrease to 143 daily minutes of engagement in 2024. However, users’ favorite platforms have changed since 2019, and the power balance appears to be shifting further from Facebook’s market dominance. Not only Facebook’s user growth rate is estimated to slow down in the next years, but users belonging to Generation Z appear to prefer video-first social platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.

Global ad spend were expected to reach over $134 billion in 2022. This means that it has increased by over 17% yearly.

In September 2022, mobile-first video platform TikTok was the most popular social media app on the Google Play Store among Android users in Great Britain, racking up roughly *** thousand downloads. Instagram ranked second, with almost *** thousand downloads, while photo app BeReal ranked third with almost *** thousand downloads from the Google Play Store in the examined period.

Doing it for the gram: the reach of influencers on Instagram Enlisting influencers – personalities with significant followings on Instagram – has become an integral part of modern marketing campaigns. Influencers have dedicated followers that have actively chosen to follow a given account, providing a cost-efficient way to reach a targeted audience. Among UK influencers, none have a following greater than David Beckham (@itsmarziapie). In 2020, the professional footballer and celebrity enjoyed a following of **** million people. By comparison, British social media personality Holly H. ranked first among TikTok influencers in the UK, with **** million followers on the short-video platform.

TikTok in the United Kingdom In the last years, TikTok seems to have taken the global social media scene by storm, and the United Kingdom makes no exception. In January 2022, the popular social video app counted almost **** million active users (MAU) in the UK, up by ** percent compared to the corresponding month in 2020. In 2021, the most popular TikTok video in the United Kingdom, titled "proving that cats rule," was posted by the user @mmeowmmia and generated nearly *** million views.

In September 2022, social media personality Tuvok ** was counting roughly **** million TikTok followers worldwide, ranking first among French-language creators for audiences on the platform. French influencer Benoît Chevalier ranked third with more than *** million TikTok followers, while YouTuber and fitness influencer Thibaud Delapart ranked second with over ***** million followers.

Between January and June 2022, TikTok personality Leane Marts gained over ***** million likes on her account on the platform, ranking first among French-language content creators for audiences on TikTok based on likes gained. TikTok personality and food influencer Poopi Blh ranked second, amassing roughly *** million likes more in the first six months of 2022.

From January to June 2022, TikTok personality Kimberly Loaiza gained over *** million likes on her account on the platform, ranking first among Spanish-language creators for the TikTok audience based on number of likes gained. Mexican TikToker domelipa ranked second with *** million likes gained in the first six months of 2022.

In September 2022, TikTok was the leading mobile social media app in the Google Play Store in Spain, with over ***** thousand downloads that month. French-based network BeReal and TikTok Now followed with *** thousand and ***** thousand downloads each from Android users in the country in the examined month. Additionally, BeReal has found particular success in Spain, as the country gathers one of the highest number of active daily users in Europe, ranking on the fourth position of the photo-based app's lifetime downloads worldwide.

TikTok vs. all At least among Android users, the visual-based social media networks dominated this ranking. TikTok is based on videos, while Instagram and Snapchat offer uses a mix of still and moving recordings, while its new contender BeReal focuses on more spontaneous and timed user portraits. The Spanish market is becoming increasingly important for social media platforms as the share of individuals using social networks increases. The overall number of TikTok users in Spain was ***** million in 2022 and forecast to reach nearly ***** million users by 2025.

Who are the real social media leaders in Spain? Strong growth struggles to measure up long-term against pre-existing market penetration. Incumbent firms such as Facebook and Instagram need few downloads to maintain their lead over TikTok. As such, Facebook can continue to thrive by winning downloads at the rate that existing users change phones, while the emerging platforms must establish themselves with a higher number of monthly installations.

More than three-quarters of the Russian online population aged 16 years and older used the Telegram messenger, thus making it the most-used social media platform among those listed in the ranking. WhatsApp ranked second, with a penetration rate of nearly 74 percent, followed by VK and TikTok. Social media usage in Russia In 2024, the daily time spent on social media in Russia was recorded at roughly two hours and 20 minutes per user on average. After Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) were blocked in Russia at the end of February and the beginning of March 2022, a significant increase in activity was recorded on VK and Telegram. For example, the daily audience on VK increased by almost nine percent, while the number of friends requests and feed views grew by 250 percent and 25 percent, respectively. YouTube From the global perspective, YouTube ranked second after Facebook, which remained the leading social media platform with about three billion active users. The U.S.-based channel MrBeast had the highest number of subscribers on YouTube with around 343 million as of January 2025. India-based T-Series followed with 284 million subscribers as of that month.

Between January and June 2022, Brazilian TikTok personality Vanessa Lopes gained ***** million likes on her account on the platform, ranking first among the Portuguese-language creators for audiences on TikTok based on the number of likes. Singer Hytalo Santos ranked second, with *** million likes gained in the first six months of 2022.

Between January and June 2022, Italian TikTok personality Federica Scagnetti gained more than **** million likes on her account on TikTok, ranking first among Italian-language creators for audiences on the platform based on number of likes. TikTok user Luca Campolunghi ranked second, gaining over **** million likes in the first six months of 2022.

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.

According to a survey conducted among tweens and preteens in the United States, ** percent of respondents aged 11 and ** reported that their favorite social media app was TikTok - despite the app being not recommended for users younger than 13 years old. Snapchat wanked second, with over ***** in ** respondents reporting to engage with social communication app Snapchat. Discord ranked third, with ** percent of respondents aged 11 and ** reporting to engage with the app.

Between January and June 2022, German TikTok personality Emir Bayrak gained *** million likes on his account on the platform, ranking first among German-language content creators for audiences on TikTok. TikTok user and personality "julesboringlife" ranked second amassing roughly *** million likes in the first half of 2022.

In September 2022, BeReal was the leading mobile social media apps in the Google Play Store in the Netherlands, with over *** thousand downloads. TikTok ranked second with roughly *** thousand downloads, while Instagram followed with ** thousand downloads.

TikTok is quickly gaining popularity in the Netherlands Over *** year, the number of users reporting using TikTok doubled from 2020 to 2021. The user age group that grew the most during this time were 15 to 19 years olds. Overall, the number of TikTok users in the Netherlands is still project to grow, albeit at a more consistent pace then the initial explosion in popularity. According to industry data, TikTok will have around ***** million users in the Netherlands in 2025.

Mobile usage influences mobile social media access TikTok’s high user figures are largely thanks to the significant use of mobile internet in the Netherlands. In 2021, mobile social networking rate among the Dutch population amounted to ** percent, reaching almost all of the population. Overall, social networks were the second most popular type of mobile apps in the Netherlands, ranking only behind chats and messaging applications.

In September 2022, the social media account for The Voice Kids was counting more than **** million TikTok followers worldwide, ranking first among German-language creators for audiences on the platform. The account of social influencer Dalia ranked second with roughly **** million followers, while "julesboringlife" ranked third with around six million followers.

In September 2022, social media personality and comedian Khabane Lame was counting almost 148 million TikTok followers worldwide, ranking first among English-language content creators for audiences on the platform. Charlie D' Amelio ranked second with roughly 142 million followers, while Bella Poarch ranked third with more than 90 million people following her account on the platform.

Social video platform TikTok made significant gains in popularity in the Netherlands between 2020 and 2023. In 2023, there were approximately four million TikTok users in the Netherlands, up from three million in the previous year. Users aged 20 to 24 years accounted for the biggest share of TikTok’s audience in the country, recording approximately 850,000 users in 2023.

Mobile social As of the end of 2022, mobile social media were the most engaging app category for users in the Netherlands. On average, Dutch users was reported spending 65 minutes per day on social apps, compared to 26 minutes spent interacting with casual gaming apps, and 14 daily minutes spent on shopping apps on a daily basis. Mobile-first communication and chat apps such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Snapchat ranked among the most popular social platforms among Dutch users in the third quarter of 2022. Social video app TikTok has become increasingly more popular, reaching four million users in 2023.

Most popular Dutch content creators With 14 million followers and several years of activity within the global beauty content community, Nikkie Tutorials was the second most popular Dutch content creator on YouTube in February 2023. With the rise of TikTok and short-video features like Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, video has become one of the most engaging formats for content creators to connect with their audiences in the Netherlands as in the rest of the digital market. As of September 2022, online Dutch influencer Sherell Martini reportedly had 4.84 million TikTok followers, while online personality and hair influencer Quinity Mirjam recorded over three million followers.

Between January and June 2022, Dutch TikTok personality under the username "quintymirjam" gained over ** million likes on his account on the platform. The Tiktoker ranked first among Dutch-language content creators on the platform, based on number of likes gained in the first six months of 2022. User "esmeejoanna" ranked second, with almost ** million likes gained in the examined period.