Facebook received 73,390 user data requests from federal agencies and courts in the United States during the second half of 2023. The social network produced some user data in 88.84 percent of requests from U.S. federal authorities. The United States accounts for the largest share of Facebook user data requests worldwide.

How many people use social media?

              Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities. In 2024, over five billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to over six billion in 2028.

              Who uses social media?
              Social networking is one of the most popular digital activities worldwide and it is no surprise that social networking penetration across all regions is constantly increasing. As of January 2023, the global social media usage rate stood at 59 percent. This figure is anticipated to grow as lesser developed digital markets catch up with other regions
              when it comes to infrastructure development and the availability of cheap mobile devices. In fact, most of social media’s global growth is driven by the increasing usage of mobile devices. Mobile-first market Eastern Asia topped the global ranking of mobile social networking penetration, followed by established digital powerhouses such as the Americas and Northern Europe.

              How much time do people spend on social media?
              Social media is an integral part of daily internet usage. On average, internet users spend 151 minutes per day on social media and messaging apps, an increase of 40 minutes since 2015. On average, internet users in Latin America had the highest average time spent per day on social media.

              What are the most popular social media platforms?
              Market leader Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and currently boasts approximately 2.9 billion monthly active users, making it the most popular social network worldwide. In June 2023, the top social media apps in the Apple App Store included mobile messaging apps WhatsApp and Telegram Messenger, as well as the ever-popular app version of Facebook.

The global number of Facebook users was forecast to continuously increase between 2023 and 2027 by in total 391 million users (+14.36 percent). After the fourth consecutive increasing year, the Facebook user base is estimated to reach 3.1 billion users and therefore a new peak in 2027. Notably, the number of Facebook users was continuously increasing over the past years. User figures, shown here regarding the platform Facebook, 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).

How much time do people spend on social media?

              As of 2024, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 143 minutes per day, down from 151 minutes in the previous year. Currently, the country with the most time spent on social media per day is Brazil, with online users spending an average of three hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in
              the U.S. was just two hours and 16 minutes. Global social media usageCurrently, the global social network penetration rate is 62.3 percent. Northern Europe had an 81.7 percent social media penetration rate, topping the ranking of global social media usage by region. Eastern and Middle Africa closed the ranking with 10.1 and 9.6 percent usage reach, respectively.
              People access social media for a variety of reasons. Users like to find funny or entertaining content and enjoy sharing photos and videos with friends, but mainly use social media to stay in touch with current events friends. Global impact of social mediaSocial media has a wide-reaching and significant impact on not only online activities but also offline behavior and life in general.
              During a global online user survey in February 2019, a significant share of respondents stated that social media had increased their access to information, ease of communication, and freedom of expression. On the flip side, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased a polarization in politics and heightened everyday distractions.

General data recollected for the studio " Analysis of the Quantitative Impact of Social Networks on Web Traffic of Cybermedia in the 27 Countries of the European Union". Four research questions are posed: what percentage of the total web traffic generated by cybermedia in the European Union comes from social networks? Is said percentage higher or lower than that provided through direct traffic and through the use of search engines via SEO positioning? Which social networks have a greater impact? And is there any degree of relationship between the specific weight of social networks in the web traffic of a cybermedia and circumstances such as the average duration of the user's visit, the number of page views or the bounce rate understood in its formal aspect of not performing any kind of interaction on the visited page beyond reading its content? To answer these questions, we have first proceeded to a selection of the cybermedia with the highest web traffic of the 27 countries that are currently part of the European Union after the United Kingdom left on December 31, 2020. In each nation we have selected five media using a combination of the global web traffic metrics provided by the tools Alexa (https://www.alexa.com/), which ceased to be operational on May 1, 2022, and SimilarWeb (https:// www.similarweb.com/). We have not used local metrics by country since the results obtained with these first two tools were sufficiently significant and our objective is not to establish a ranking of cybermedia by nation but to examine the relevance of social networks in their web traffic. In all cases, cybermedia whose property corresponds to a journalistic company have been selected, ruling out those belonging to telecommunications portals or service providers; in some cases they correspond to classic information companies (both newspapers and televisions) while in others they refer to digital natives, without this circumstance affecting the nature of the research proposed.
Below we have proceeded to examine the web traffic data of said cybermedia. The period corresponding to the months of October, November and December 2021 and January, February and March 2022 has been selected. We believe that this six-month stretch allows possible one-time variations to be overcome for a month, reinforcing the precision of the data obtained. To secure this data, we have used the SimilarWeb tool, currently the most precise tool that exists when examining the web traffic of a portal, although it is limited to that coming from desktops and laptops, without taking into account those that come from mobile devices, currently impossible to determine with existing measurement tools on the market. It includes:

Web traffic general data: average visit duration, pages per visit and bounce rate Web traffic origin by country Percentage of traffic generated from social media over total web traffic Distribution of web traffic generated from social networks Comparison of web traffic generated from social netwoks with direct and search procedures

This dataset contains user behavior traffic in Tor, I2P, ZeroNet and Freenet.

We divide darknet user behaviors in 8 categories: Browsing, Chat, E-mail, Audio-streaming, Video-streaming, File Transfer, P2P and VoIP. We investigated the commonly used applications in Tor, I2P, ZeroNet, Freenet to simulate various user behaviors.

After capturing pcap, we use CICFlowMeter for feature extraction. Since our user behavior hierarchical classifier consists of 6 local classifiers, we divide the dataset into 6 csv files. The statistics of traffic data are shown in the following table.

Dataset

Original Pcap Datasets: Google drive - download

Citation

@INPROCEEDINGS{9343185,
 author={Hu, Yuzong and Zou, Futai and Li, Linsen and Yi, Ping},
 booktitle={2020 IEEE 19th International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications (TrustCom)}, 
 title={Traffic Classification of User Behaviors in Tor, I2P, ZeroNet, Freenet}, 
 year={2020},
 volume={},
 number={},
 pages={418-424},
 doi={10.1109/TrustCom50675.2020.00064}}

Acknowlegement

Foto von Leon Seibert auf Unsplash

Internet Data Center Market Outlook

According to our latest research, the global Internet Data Center market size stood at USD 68.3 billion in 2024, registering a robust growth trajectory. The market is forecasted to reach USD 165.7 billion by 2033, expanding at a healthy CAGR of 10.4% during the 2025-2033 period. The key growth factor driving this surge is the exponential rise in data generation, cloud computing adoption, and the proliferation of digital transformation initiatives across industries worldwide. As organizations increasingly prioritize business continuity, security, and scalability, the demand for advanced data center infrastructure is at an all-time high, shaping the future of the Internet Data Center market.

One of the primary drivers fueling the growth of the Internet Data Center market is the rapid expansion of digital services and applications, which has led to an unprecedented surge in global data traffic. The proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, video streaming, e-commerce, and social media platforms has necessitated the deployment of high-capacity, low-latency data centers capable of handling massive workloads. Enterprises and service providers are investing heavily in data center modernization, focusing on energy efficiency, automation, and robust connectivity to support these evolving digital ecosystems. The growing emphasis on hybrid and multi-cloud strategies further amplifies the need for flexible and scalable data center solutions, propelling market growth.

Another significant growth factor is the increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and big data analytics across various sectors, including healthcare, finance, and retail. These technologies require substantial computational power and storage capabilities, driving demand for advanced data center infrastructure. Modern data centers are being designed to support high-density computing, GPU acceleration, and edge computing, enabling real-time data processing and analytics at scale. Additionally, the shift toward software-defined data centers (SDDC) and virtualization is transforming traditional data center architectures, enabling greater agility, cost-efficiency, and operational resilience. This evolution is further supported by advancements in network technologies such as 5G, which facilitate faster data transmission and improved user experiences.

Sustainability and energy efficiency have emerged as crucial considerations in the Internet Data Center market, as organizations and governments worldwide prioritize environmental responsibility. Data centers are significant consumers of electricity, prompting the adoption of green technologies, renewable energy sources, and innovative cooling solutions to minimize carbon footprints. Regulatory mandates and industry standards are driving investments in energy-efficient hardware, intelligent power management, and sustainable building practices. Leading market players are increasingly focusing on achieving carbon neutrality and leveraging circular economy principles, which not only reduce operational costs but also enhance brand reputation and stakeholder trust. This sustainable approach is expected to shape investment decisions and technological advancements in the coming years.

Regionally, the Asia Pacific market is witnessing remarkable growth, outpacing other regions due to rapid digitalization, government initiatives, and increasing internet penetration. Countries such as China, India, and Singapore are emerging as data center hubs, attracting significant investments from global cloud service providers and hyperscalers. North America continues to dominate in terms of market share, driven by mature IT infrastructure, high cloud adoption rates, and a strong focus on innovation. Europe is also experiencing steady growth, supported by stringent data protection regulations and the expansion of edge data centers. Meanwhile, the Middle East & Africa and Latin America markets are gradually gaining momentum, fueled by digital transformation efforts and infrastructure modernization.

Mobile Data Traffic Market Outlook

The global mobile data traffic market size was estimated at approximately USD 68 billion in 2023 and is projected to surge to about USD 320 billion by 2032, exhibiting a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.5% over the forecast period. This growth is driven by the increasing penetration of smartphones, advancements in network technologies, and the rising consumption of data-intensive applications and services.

One of the primary growth factors for the mobile data traffic market is the rapid expansion of the smartphone user base globally. As smartphones become more affordable and accessible, especially in emerging markets, the number of mobile internet users is skyrocketing. This trend is further amplified by the increasing availability of high-speed mobile networks, which make data-heavy applications such as video streaming and online gaming more feasible and attractive to users. The proliferation of affordable data plans is also encouraging users to consume more mobile data, thereby bolstering market growth.

Another significant driver of growth is the continuous evolution of network technologies. The transition from 3G to 4G, and now to 5G, has significantly enhanced data transmission speeds and network capabilities. 5G technology, in particular, promises ultra-low latency, higher capacity, and faster download and upload speeds, which are expected to revolutionize various sectors such as healthcare, automotive, and smart cities. The deployment and adoption of 5G networks are anticipated to boost mobile data traffic volumes exponentially, as it facilitates the seamless use of high-bandwidth applications, including augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

The increase in video content consumption is also a major factor driving the market. Video traffic accounts for a substantial portion of mobile data usage, driven by platforms like YouTube, Netflix, and social media sites that prioritize video content. The trend of live streaming and video-on-demand services is creating a massive surge in data traffic, with users increasingly accessing high-definition (HD) and even 4K content. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital entertainment and online education, further increasing the demand for mobile data.

Regionally, the growth of mobile data traffic is witnessing variations with Asia Pacific leading the charge. The region's high population density, coupled with increasing urbanization and smartphone penetration, makes it a significant contributor to global data traffic. Countries like China and India are at the forefront, driven by government initiatives to promote digitalization and the rollout of advanced mobile networks. North America and Europe are also substantial markets due to their well-established network infrastructure and early adoption of new technologies. However, the growth rates in these regions are relatively moderate compared to the exponential growth seen in Asia Pacific and Latin America.

Traffic Type Analysis

The mobile data traffic market can be segmented by traffic type into video, audio, data, and others. Video traffic is the most dominant segment, accounting for the largest share of mobile data usage worldwide. The proliferation of video streaming services, alongside user-generated video content on social media platforms, significantly contributes to this dominance. As more users switch to high-definition and 4K streaming, the demand for data-intensive video content continues to rise. Additionally, the growing popularity of live streaming and video calls, particularly in the context of remote work and online education, further propels this segment's growth.

Audio traffic also plays a significant role in the mobile data traffic market. The increasing usage of music streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music, and various podcast platforms are driving the growth of this segment. The trend of consuming audio content on the go, facilitated by improved network speeds and unlimited data plans, is contributing to a steady rise in mobile data traffic from audio services. Furthermore, the adoption of smart speakers and voice assistant technologies is expected to continue bolstering this segment.

Data traffic, encompassing all forms of non-visual and non-audio data, is another crucial segment. This includes browsing, app usage, emails, and other types of data transmission over mobile networks. With the increasing reliance on mobile applications for a wide array of activities—ra

During a 2024 survey, 77 percent of respondents from Nigeria stated that they used social media as a source of news. In comparison, just 23 percent of Japanese respondents said the same. Large portions of social media users around the world admit that they do not trust social platforms either as media sources or as a way to get news, and yet they continue to access such networks on a daily basis.

              Social media: trust and consumption

              Despite the majority of adults surveyed in each country reporting that they used social networks to keep up to date with news and current affairs, a 2018 study showed that social media is the least trusted news source in the world. Less than 35 percent of adults in Europe considered social networks to be trustworthy in this respect, yet more than 50 percent of adults in Portugal, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Croatia said that they got their news on social media.

              What is clear is that we live in an era where social media is such an enormous part of daily life that consumers will still use it in spite of their doubts or reservations. Concerns about fake news and propaganda on social media have not stopped billions of users accessing their favorite networks on a daily basis.
              Most Millennials in the United States use social media for news every day, and younger consumers in European countries are much more likely to use social networks for national political news than their older peers.
              Like it or not, reading news on social is fast becoming the norm for younger generations, and this form of news consumption will likely increase further regardless of whether consumers fully trust their chosen network or not.

Click Web Traffic Combined with Transaction Data: A New Dimension of Shopper Insights

Consumer Edge is a leader in alternative consumer data for public and private investors and corporate clients. Click enhances the unparalleled accuracy of CE Transact by allowing investors to delve deeper and browse further into global online web traffic for CE Transact companies and more. Leverage the unique fusion of web traffic and transaction datasets to understand the addressable market and understand spending behavior on consumer and B2B websites. See the impact of changes in marketing spend, search engine algorithms, and social media awareness on visits to a merchant’s website, and discover the extent to which product mix and pricing drive or hinder visits and dwell time. Plus, Click uncovers a more global view of traffic trends in geographies not covered by Transact. Doubleclick into better forecasting, with Click.

Consumer Edge’s Click is available in machine-readable file delivery and enables: • Comprehensive Global Coverage: Insights across 620+ brands and 59 countries, including key markets in the US, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. • Integrated Data Ecosystem: Click seamlessly maps web traffic data to CE entities and stock tickers, enabling a unified view across various business intelligence tools. • Near Real-Time Insights: Daily data delivery with a 5-day lag ensures timely, actionable insights for agile decision-making. • Enhanced Forecasting Capabilities: Combining web traffic indicators with transaction data helps identify patterns and predict revenue performance.

Use Case: Analyze Year Over Year Growth Rate by Region

Problem A public investor wants to understand how a company’s year-over-year growth differs by region.

Solution The firm leveraged Consumer Edge Click data to: • Gain visibility into key metrics like views, bounce rate, visits, and addressable spend • Analyze year-over-year growth rates for a time period • Breakout data by geographic region to see growth trends

Metrics Include: • Spend • Items • Volume • Transactions • Price Per Volume

Inquire about a Click subscription to perform more complex, near real-time analyses on public tickers and private brands as well as for industries beyond CPG like: • Monitor web traffic as a leading indicator of stock performance and consumer demand • Analyze customer interest and sentiment at the brand and sub-brand levels

Consumer Edge offers a variety of datasets covering the US, Europe (UK, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Spain), and across the globe, with subscription options serving a wide range of business needs.

Consumer Edge is the Leader in Data-Driven Insights Focused on the Global Consumer

This dataset contains metadata, experimental results, and performance analysis for our study on optimizing video traffic across social network using the HMDB51 video dataset. The data includes:

• User Metadata: Simulated user interactions with videos
• Video Metadata: Extracted features from HMDB51 videos
• Traffic Data: System-generated logs of video retrieval requests
• CSVs data: Structured storage of metadata os experiments for results and analysis on identifying identical videos with hashing-based video similarity results

This dataset is useful for researchers working on video retrieval, deep learning-based video hashing, and online social network video traffic optimization.

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.

Preliminary research efforts regarding Social Media Platforms and their contribution to website traffic in LAMs. Through the Similar Web API, the leading social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, LinkedIn) that drove traffic to each one of the 220 cases in our dataset were identified and analyzed in the first sheet. Aggregated results proved that Facebook platform was responsible for 46.1% of social traffic (second sheet).

The global alternative data service market is projected to reach USD 121.1 billion by 2033, exhibiting a CAGR of 32.4% during the forecast period (2025-2033). The increasing adoption of alternative data sources, such as web data and traffic, sentiment and public data, by various industries to gain actionable insights into market trends and consumer behavior is driving market growth. The growing demand for alternative data from the financial services industry, particularly for credit risk analysis and portfolio management, is also contributing to market expansion. The expansion of the alternative data service market is facilitated by several emerging trends, including the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. These technologies enable the automated analysis of large volumes of alternative data, enhancing the ability to extract meaningful insights. Additionally, the growing awareness and adoption of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) data are expected to create opportunities for alternative data providers in the coming years. However, concerns regarding data privacy and security may pose challenges to the market's growth. Alternative data services provide actionable insights by analyzing non-traditional data sources such as credit card transactions, social media, and internet traffic. This rapidly growing industry offers valuable information for various industries and applications.

During a 2025 survey among marketers worldwide, around 83 percent reported using Facebook for marketing purposes. Instagram and LinkedIn followed, respectively mentioned by 78 and 69 percent of the respondents. The global social media marketing segment According to the same study, 60 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 2025. 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.

This dataset encompasses mobile app usage, web clickstream and location visitation behavior, collected from over 150,000 triple-opt-in first-party US Daily Active Users (DAU). The only omnichannel meter at scale representing iOS and Android platforms.

Includes ties to consumer demographics.

In-app audio, media and social ad exposure data included. Can be commissioned to build other in-app and account level visibility.

Big Data Analytics In Telecom Market size was valued at USD 4.91 Billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 155.33 Billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 54% from 2026 to 2032.

Global Big Data Analytics In Telecom Market Drivers

Unprecedented Growth in Data Volume: Network traffic, customer contacts, Internet of Things (IoT) devices, social media, and other sources are all contributing to the explosive growth in data volume that telecom firms are seeing. This means that in order to get useful insights from this enormous datasets, sophisticated analytics techniques are required. Demand for Personalized Services: Customers are becoming more and more accustomed to receiving services that are specific to their tastes and actions. Telecom firms can now analyze client data in real-time and provide personalized services, promotions, and goods, all thanks to big data analytics, which increases consumer happiness and loyalty.

As of February 2025, 5.56 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, which amounted to 67.9 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.24 billion, or 63.9 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 20254. In The Netherlands, Norway and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of February 2025. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Eastern Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide – over 1.34 billion at the latest count. Southern Asia ranked second, with around 1.2 billion internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2024, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in African countries, with around a ten percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller usage gap between these two genders. As of 2024, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years old across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most significant usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group 15–24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

Alternative Data Market size was valued at USD 16.13 Billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 408.72 Billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 54.92% from 2024 to 2031.

Global Alternative Data Market Drivers

Growing Need for Alpha Generation: Investors are continuously looking for fresh sources of alpha, or excess returns over a benchmark, in the fiercely competitive financial markets. Insights from alternative data are distinct from those from traditional sources, which helps investors spot opportunities and obtain a competitive advantage. Technological Developments: The mass gathering and examination of alternative data has been made easier by technological developments, especially in fields like artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analytics. These technologies improve the value proposition of alternative data for investors by enabling complex data processing, pattern detection, and predictive modeling. Proliferation of Data Sources: Beyond traditional financial and economic indicators, there is a proliferation of data sources due to the internet and digital technology. Web traffic, satellite imagery, social media feeds, consumer transactions, and sensor data are just a few examples of the many sources that make up alternative data, which offers deep and varied insights into a number of fields and industries. Regulatory Environment: The gathering, storing, and use of alternative data may be affected by changes in regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union and other comparable data protection legislation across the globe. Adherence to regulatory mandates is crucial for alternative data providers and consumers, as it molds the market environment and impacts data procurement tactics.