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 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.
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Facebook was the most-visited social media website in Lithuania in 2023, with a 72-percent share of the web traffic on third-party websites via clicks on social media sites. Instagram ranked second with 8.4 percent.
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 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.
During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, approximately ** percent said Facebook was the most important social media platform. Instagram and LinkedIn followed, respectively mentioned by ** and ** 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.
During a 2024 survey among marketers worldwide, around 86 percent reported using Facebook for marketing purposes. Instagram and LinkedIn followed, respectively mentioned by 79 and 65 percent of the respondents. The global social media marketing segment According to the same study, 59 percent of responding marketers intended to increase their organic use of YouTube for marketing purposes throughout that year. LinkedIn and Instagram followed with similar shares, rounding up the top three social media platforms attracting a planned growth in organic use among global marketers in 2024. Their main driver is increasing brand exposure and traffic, which led the ranking of benefits of social media marketing worldwide. Social media for B2B marketing Social media platform adoption rates among business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketers vary according to each subsegment's focus. While B2C professionals prioritize Facebook and Instagram – both run by Meta, Inc. – due to their popularity among online audiences, B2B marketers concentrate their endeavors on Microsoft-owned LinkedIn due to its goal to connect people and companies in a corporate context.
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.
Facebook was the leading social media website in Latvia based on the share of visits in 2023, having occupied over ** percent of the web traffic on third-party websites that arrived via clicks on social media sites. X, formerly known as Twitter, ranked second, with over ** percent.
Instagram was among the most visited social media platform in Belarus by share of social media traffic. In 2024, Instagram accounted for over ** percent of social media site visits. Pinterest ranked second with over ** percent of Belarusian social media site visits.
In February 2023, Cameo.com saw approximately 4.7 million monthly website visits from users worldwide. Launched in 2016, the platform allows fans to request personalized messages from their favorite celebrity for a fee. In 2021, “The Office” actor Brian Baumgartner was among the most popular celebrities on Cameo, charging 225 U.S. dollars to fans for personalized video content.
Starred creators: Celebrities on the internet Following the life of celebrities is one of the secret pleasures of millions of users on the internet. In 2021, Britney Spears was the highest trending celebrity worldwide, with an increase of 117 percent in Google searches compared to the previous year. While the great majority of stars and famous personalities are under strict public relations control, fans can get a glimpse into their favorite celebrity’s life on social media in a seemingly organic way. Mainstream celebrities are the most followed users on Instagram, with footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and actor Dwayne 'The Rock" Johnson amassing 332 million and 265 million users, respectively.
Online video content creators According to a May 2022 survey of digital creators on Patreon, videos were the most popular content format, with almost 40 percent of creators choosing this type of media. Writing and audio content followed, with 17 percent and 14 percent of users on the popular crowdfunding platform reporting using these media to interact with their online audiences. Despite its popularity, video content generally requires more effort from creators, as well as notable knowledge of video editing software. According to a survey of digital content creators conducted in 2021, 36 percent of respondents spent between one and five hours weekly creating digital content, while 16 percent spent between 10 and 20 hours per week working on content to publish.
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.
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.
In December 2023, Pinterest accounted for the largest share of web traffic referrals from social media in Kazakhstan, at around ** percent. YouTube and Facebook followed, with the shares of **** percent and **** percent, respectively.
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.
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.
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.
Facebook holds the largest share of the social media market in Greece. No other network comes close to the approximately 85-percent share of the country's total social media traffic held by Facebook in 2024. Throughout that year, Facebook reached its highest share in August, at **** percent. Other commonly visited networks are Pinterest, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. Social media usage in Greece Nearly seven out of ten individuals in Greece used the internet to access social media in 2023. This figure increased significantly over the past decade. To compare, in 2013, the penetration rate stood at around ** percent. Moreover, more than half of enterprises in the country employed social media platforms. Usage of selected blogging platforms in Greece In a survey conducted in February 2023, around one-fifth of Greek residents used X. That was the fifth-largest share among the surveyed European countries, including Turkey. Furthermore, ** percent consumed news content on the platform. Another blogging platform, Telegram, had a 16-percent reach among Greek internet users in the third quarter of 2022.
As of November 2021, Facebook was the social media platform that most provided referrals to other websites in Brazil and was responsible for up to **** percent to Google.com web traffic in the country. Social media is a major traffic driver in Argentina, being used by **** of the country's online users to look for information about brands and products.
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.