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. 

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.

As of 2020, Facebook was the most popular social media site in the UK in terms of the share of users who reported having a profile on that networking platform. Facebook's user share among social network users reached ** percent in 2020. The share of respondents with an Instagram profile during the same period was ** percent.

According to a survey conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2020, it was reported that ******** was the most frequently used social networking platform among all age groups. Compared to Facebook, all other social networking sites and apps had only a fraction of respondents name them as their main account. Facebook in the UK Facebook user penetration rate has been gradually increasing, reaching over ** percent in 2020, with the number of Facebook users also seeing subsequent growth over that period. By 2025, the number of Facebook users in the UK is projected to reach **** million individuals. On the other hand, the market share of the social media giant has experienced a significant decrease since January 2017, reaching its lowest point in April 2020. Facebook user demographics in the UK Individuals aged between *************** old make up the largest share of Facebook users, followed by individuals aged 35 to 44 years old. And as of October 2020, Facebook attracted more ****** users than ********** in the UK. In terms of household income, users are fairly evenly distributed.

According to a 2020 survey run in the United Kingdom (UK), Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp was the most popular social media platform among those aged 26 to 35. Out of all the respondents, 85 percent had an account on the social networking site. Facebook came in second place, with 80 percent of respondents claiming they used the service while YouTube and Instagram featured third and fourth respectively.

Facebook as a leading digital ad platform

Facebook continues to dominate the social media market in the UK, its penetration rate having been on the rise since 2015. By 2022, the social media platform’s share of monthly active users is forecast to reach 62.44 percent of the United Kingdom’s population. As a platform with such widespread reach not just within the UK but around the world, Facebook is perfectly poised to become a leading online advertising tool. In fact, the social network giant brought in nearly 23 percent of all digital advertising revenue in the United Kingdom in 2018, the highest among all social media platforms. This is forecasted to reach 28 percent by 2021, narrowing the gap with market leader Google.

The news and social media

Facebook remains, albeit to a lesser extent, a news source for nearly 30 percent in the United Kingdom according to figures until 2018. Although this number is significantly lower than in countries such as Italy and Spain where around half of the surveyed population turned to Facebook for news, it is no small figure and one would think that such numbers would reflect a positive perception of social media as a news source. A 2019 survey demonstrated however, that this was not the case with social media ranking lowest in terms of level of trust against other sources such as traditional media, online media, and owned media.

In 2020, it was found that the main social networking profile of UK social media users was ******** with ** percent of responding individuals claiming it as their most used social networking profile. During the same survey period, ** percent of respondents listed Instagram as their main social media account.

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.

Employment statistics on the Social Media Platforms industry in the UK

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

As of early 2025, advertising on YouTube had the highest reach in the United Kingdom among the presented social media platforms, at ** percent. LinkedIn and Facebook followed, with about ** and ** percent, respectively. An ad medium attractive for marketers… The UK is the third-largest social media market worldwide, behind the United States and China. The market was worth *** billion U.S. dollars in 2023 and was expected to grow to **** billion by 2028. In the same period, social media usage is also forecast to increase. Its penetration rate is projected to deepen from an already high ** percent to **** percent of internet users. …but not so trusted by consumers Popular as it is, social media advertising was the second-least trusted medium among adults in the UK in 2023. Only influencer ads scored lower. This holds true across all age groups, underscoring the fact that even though social media is especially popular among younger internet users, they do not necessarily trust everything they see there. In the age group of 18 to 34, cinema is the most trusted ad medium; among older adults, TV reigns supreme.

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: 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 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.

The number of Instagram users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 2.1 million users (+7.02 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Instagram user base is estimated to reach 32 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Instagram users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here with regards to the platform instagram, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

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.

The number of Pinterest users in the United Kingdom was forecast to continuously increase between 2024 and 2028 by in total 0.3 million users (+3.14 percent). After the ninth consecutive increasing year, the Pinterest user base is estimated to reach 9.88 million users and therefore a new peak in 2028. Notably, the number of Pinterest users of was continuously increasing over the past years.User figures, shown here regarding the platform pinterest, have been estimated by taking into account company filings or press material, secondary research, app downloads and traffic data. They refer to the average monthly active users over the period and count multiple accounts by persons only once.The shown data are an excerpt of Statista's Key Market Indicators (KMI). The KMI are a collection of primary and secondary indicators on the macro-economic, demographic and technological environment in up to 150 countries and regions worldwide. All indicators are sourced from international and national statistical offices, trade associations and the trade press and they are processed to generate comparable data sets (see supplementary notes under details for more information).

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.

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.

United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: 10-49 Employees data was reported at 57.900 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 53.900 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: 10-49 Employees data is updated yearly, averaging 48.500 % from Dec 2012 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 57.900 % in 2016 and a record low of 38.200 % in 2012. United Kingdom E Commerce: Social Networks: 10-49 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.