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. 

Over the five years through 2025-26, industry revenue is forecast to expand at a compound annual rate of 20.3% to reach £12.5 billion. Social media platforms are integral to people's lives, offering ways to communicate, create and view content and share information. According to Ofcom, approximately 89% of UK internet users in 2023 used social media apps or sites. Teenagers and young adults are the biggest users. Advertising is the primary revenue source for social media platforms, although subscription-based services are gaining momentum as platforms seek to diversify their incomes. TikTok is the success story of the past five years, becoming the most downloaded app between 2020 and 2022, according to Apptopia. The short-form video platform has over 30 million monthly users in the UK in 2025. After Musk's takeover, X, formerly known as Twitter, adjusted its content moderation and allowed previously banned accounts to return. As a result, over 600 advertisers pulled their ads from the site because of fears their brand may be associated with malcontent. In response to falling ad revenue, X has introduced a subscription-based service which enables users to verify themselves and boosts the number of people who view their tweets. Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram have responded by introducing a similar service. In 2025, more social media platforms are using AI to boost user engagement. This improves click-through rates and drives higher advertising revenue. Industry revenue is expected to grow by 6.3% in 2025-26. Over the five years through 2030-31, social media platforms' revenue is projected to climb at an estimated 9.2% to reach £19.4 billion. Regulations relating to how data is collected, stored, and shared will force advertisers and platforms to rethink how they can target their desired demographics. The tightening of regulations will raise industry compliance costs, weighing on profit margin. Older age groups present a new revenue opportunity for social media platforms if they can bridge the gap between passive TV consumption and interactive digital engagement. Augmented Reality (AR) technology will move beyond filters to become standard for immersive product trials, interactive ads, and virtual meetups

In 2025, Meta's Facebook held approximately ***** percent of the social network market in the United Kingdom, while X (formerly Twitter) accounted for approximately ******percent. Overall, Instagram held *****percent of the social network market 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.

Number of Businesses statistics on the Social Media Platforms industry in the UK

In 2022, ******* was the most used social platform among children and teenagers in the United Kingdom, with ** percent of respondents stating that they had used the service. ******** ranked second, with ** percent of kids and teens in the UK being active on the platform. Additionally, usage of TikTok and Snapchat increased from 2021 to 2021 among those aged three to 17 in the UK. Youth accounts on the rise again From ** percent in 2012, the share of children aged 12 to 15 years of age with a social media account fell to ** percent in 2018, but increased again in 2020, peaking at ** percent. Despite some major social networks setting minimum age limits in their terms of service, ** percent of children aged 5 to 7 years had a social media account in 2020, according to Ofcom. Facebook falling out of favor with teens Among teens and young adults in the United States, Youtube and Instagram had a higher reach than any other social network, slightly ahead of Facebook and Snapchat. When you remove young adults from the picture, Snapchat is clearly the most important social network and Facebook barely comes into the equation. Since the Fall/Autumn period of 2017, less than ten percent of teens in the United States said Facebook was their most important social network, compared with more than ** percent of teens who nominated Snapchat. The new hot trend among Gen Z is TikTok, selected by ** percent of respondents and ranking second.

Employment statistics on the Social Media Platforms industry in the UK

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.

Discover key social media statistics, including user growth, platform trends, engagement rates, demographics, and usage patterns!

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, 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, 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 5.44 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.

A list of UK local authorities which are using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. Also includes those with RSS feeds, web development blogs and open data.

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.

A key focus of this project was to consider how ‘lad’ and ‘laddish’ behaviours fit into wider processes of developing young masculine identities on social media spaces. Key questions this project wished to address were: what does it mean to be a ‘lad’ on social media? What sort of content is posted, shared and liked within these spaces? What role do these digitized spaces play in forming friendships and social connections, both on and offline? To what extent do ‘laddish’ practices on social media influence young people’s behaviour in online and offline spaces? This project aimed to make a positive societal impact by using its key research findings to develop training resources for community-based organisations in the UK who support young people in critically exploring, understanding and navigating masculinized practices in online spaces and beyond.

A key focus of this project is to consider how ‘lad’ and ‘laddish’ behaviours fit into wider processes of developing young masculine identities on social media spaces. Key questions this project wishes to address are: what does it mean to be a ‘lad’ on social media? What sort of content is posted, shared and liked within these spaces? What role do these digitized spaces play in forming friendships and social connections, both on and offline? To what extent do ‘laddish’ practices on social media influence young people’s behaviour in online and offline spaces?

Aims & Methodologies This project aims to make a positive societal impact by using its key research findings to develop training resources for community-based organisations in the UK who support young people in critically exploring, understanding and navigating masculinized practices in online spaces and beyond.

This project will address these research objectives by:

Employing qualitative research methods (non-participant observation, data scraping, focus groups and interviews) to critically examine how young men (aged 18-25 years) use social media to form and develop their masculinised identifications, social connections and networks, from the perspective of all gendered groups in this age group. Exploring the extent to which gender-making practices associated with lad identities in UK contexts influence young people’s behaviour both online and offline. Investigating the role that social media networks, particularly digital infrastructures, play in the development of young masculinities, particularly those associated with ‘laddish’ identities. Working with three UK community-based partners - Beyond Equality, Survivors Network and METRO to help develop research-based training materials, to support young people in critically exploring, understanding and navigating masculinised practices in online spaces and beyond.

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.

Facebook and YouTube are still the most used social media platforms today.

Data contained in this file are reported in: Ihssen & Wadsley (2020), A Reward and Incentive-Sensitization Perspective on Compulsive Use of Social Networking Sites – Wanting but not Liking Predicts Checking Frequency and Problematic Use Behavior, Addictive Behaviors.The file contains survey data from 358 participants (mean age 20.9 years) who took part in three online studies at Durham University. The studies investigated behavioural, motivational and affective processes in relation to Social Networking Sites (SNSs).Studies were presented on the Online Surveys platform (https://www.onlinesurveys.ac.uk) and approved by the Ethics Sub-Committee in the Department of Psychology at Durham University. All participants gave fully informed consent.Key measures included:-SNS use measures (typical daily time spent on SNSs, frequency of checking SNSs, indicators of problematic SNS use [adapted items from the four symptom clusters of the DSM-V criteria for substance addiction]). -Wanting (urges to use SNSs) and liking of SNSs (enjoyment)-Cue reactivity ("CR"): Motivational responses to logo images of four widely used SNSs (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat)

Data contained in this file are reported in: Ihssen & Wadsley (2020), A Reward and Incentive-Sensitization Perspective on Compulsive Use of Social Networking Sites – Wanting but not Liking Predicts Checking Frequency and Problematic Use Behavior, Addictive Behaviors.The file contains survey data from 358 participants (mean age 20.9 years) who took part in three online studies at Durham University. The studies investigated behavioural, motivational and affective processes in relation to Social Networking Sites (SNSs).Studies were presented on the Online Surveys platform (https://www.onlinesurveys.ac.uk) and approved by the Ethics Sub-Committee in the Department of Psychology at Durham University. All participants gave fully informed consent.Key measures included:-SNS use measures (typical daily time spent on SNSs, frequency of checking SNSs, indicators of problematic SNS use [adapted items from the four symptom clusters of the DSM-V criteria for substance addiction]). -Wanting (urges to use SNSs) and liking of SNSs (enjoyment)-Cue reactivity ("CR"): Motivational responses to logo images of four widely used SNSs (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat)

63.9% of the world’s total population is active on social media.

How high is the brand awareness of Pinterest in the UK?When it comes to social media users, brand awareness of Pinterest is at 83 percent in the UK. The survey was conducted using the concept of aided brand recognition, showing respondents both the brand's logo and the written brand name.How popular is Pinterest in the UK?In total, 29 percent of UK social media users say they like Pinterest.What is the usage share of Pinterest in the UK?All in all, 25 percent of social media users in the UK use Pinterest.How loyal are the users of Pinterest?Around 22 percent of social media users in the UK say they are likely to use Pinterest again.What's the buzz around Pinterest in the UK?In February 2024, about 13 percent of UK social media users had heard about Pinterest in the media, on social media, or in advertising over the past four weeks. If you want to compare brands, do deep-dives by survey items of your choice, filter by total online population or users of a certain brand, or drill down on your very own hand-tailored target groups, our Consumer Insights Brand KPI survey has you covered.