In 2024, YouTube's advertising revenue accounted for approximately 13.66 percent of Google's total revenue. That year, the video platform's annual ad revenues amounted to 36.1 billion U.S. dollars, up from the 31.5 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year. YouTube creators Video content creators on YouTube have been evolving with the platform since its creation. In 2020, it was estimated that YouTube supported over 800 thousand jobs worldwide, almost half of which referred to creators located in the United States. Apart from sharing a portion of YouTube advertising revenues, the most popular video creators can decide to license their existing content libraries for a limited amount of time in exchange for their advertising revenues. As YouTube ranked among the leading ad-selling companies worldwide in 2021, the recent success of financing companies focusing on user-generated video content does not come as a surprise. Digital video ads In 2021, global spending for online video advertisement surpassed 61 million U.S. dollars and is expected to reach approximately 90 million U.S. dollars by 2024. Video ads can engage users across multiple devices, with a 2021 survey of app developers worldwide seeing over 40 percent of respondents considering full-screen videos the most effective ad format to acquire new app users.

In 2024, YouTube's global advertising revenues amounted to approximately ***** billion U.S. dollars, up by almost eight percent from the **** billion U.S. dollars in the preceding fiscal period. Whereas the owned online video platform does not generate the same amount of revenue as Google's key segment Search, it is nonetheless a significant money-maker for parent company Alphabet.

In 2020, YouTube’s net advertising revenues in the United States are projected to reach **** billion U.S. dollars, up from **** billion U.S. dollars in 2017. That year, the video platform generated *** billion U.S. dollars in global net ad revenues. YouTube advertising During a November 2018 survey, 90 percent of responding internet users from the United States stated that they used YouTube to watch online video. This significant reach, coupled with an increase in online video consumption among the U.S. online population, positions YouTube as a major player in terms of online advertising and marketing. Brands and influencers can upload ads and promotional videos to the online video platform and in the beauty segment, influencers account for ** percent of beauty content video views on YouTube, making this a popular category for influencer marketing. Influencer marketing With increasing professionalization of YouTube channel owners and stronger monetization of video content, the bar for successful YouTube videos has been raised significantly during the past few years. Gone are grainy webcam videos, and most YouTubers and influencers have a professional camera and lighting setup in order to produce high-quality videos that look and sound good on any device. When factoring in the time it takes to produce and cut a YouTube video, it comes as little surprise that YouTube is a popular medium for influencers in the * million plus follower segment, but rarely for those who have significantly less followers (micro-influencers) or vastly more fans (major celebrities). Small influencers may focus their efforts on other platforms with less initial production costs and efforts, and big celebrities do not need to produce YouTube videos to further their fame.

An increase in the average revenue from AdSense has been observed in Poland. In 2017, the aforementioned monthly revenue was nearly *** thousand zloty, while in 2021 it amounted to more than ** thousand zloty.

This statistic displays the highest earning YouTube influencers in Finland in 2017. During that year, the YouTube content creator with the largest annual income was Lauri Puttonen of the channel TheRelaxingEnd with over ******* euros. The second highest earnings was generated by Veronica Verho (Mariieveronica) with approximately ******* euros, followed by Eric Savolainen (Lakko) with roughly ******* euros.

Advertising remained the main revenue-generating segment for Google in 2024. During the examined year, 77.8 percent of Google’s revenue came from advertising on Google properties and YouTube. The Google Cloud revenue segment generated 10.8 percent of the company's revenues, up from 4.3 percent in 2018.

In 2024, Alphabet's revenue from Google websites (including YouTube advertising) amounted to around 234.23 billion U.S. dollars, up from 206.5 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year. Google Search is by far the biggest revenue segment of Alphabet. Alphabet Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate created in 2015 as the parent company of Google and several other companies previously owned by or tied to Google.

This statistic shows the yearly income of the leading YouTube stars in South Korea in 2017. During the measured time period, PomPom Toys was the highest paid YouTube celebrity with its kids contents, earning around *** billion South Korean won a year.

In January 2025, YouTube held a market share of **** percent among online social networking platforms in the United Kingdom (UK). Figures were calculated based on approximately fifteen billion hits online per month. YouTube’s reach within the UK In 2021, users in the United Kingdom spent over ** hours per month on the popular social video and streaming platform YouTube, making it the most engaging video platform after TikTok. This made it the most widely used social networks, and one of the more attractive digital advertising tools for marketers. During this period, YouTube was the most popular video app among children in the UK, with ** percent of respondents reporting to engage with this platform. The future of digital advertising A report published in 2019 cited YouTube as the digital platform forecasted to enhance communications in the near future, as advertising shifts to become more visual. YouTube’s worldwide advertising revenues have also increased year on year since 2017, attesting the effectiveness of its monetization methods. The introduction of services such as its Partner Program, which collaborates with leading content creators to earn through in-video-advertising has helped YouTube stay relevant while generating and retaining a large audience base.

This statistic shows the total revenue of eSports in the Netherlands in 2017 with a forecast for 2018 and 2019 (in U.S. dollars). In 2017, the Dutch eSports market reached a size of approximately 9.4 million U.S. dollars. This revenue is mostly based on what popular gamers and the video platforms Twitch and YouTube earn through advertisements and donations. It is forecast that the revenue will increase to 11.5 million U.S. dollars in 2018.

As of 2017, more than three quarter of the eSports viewers were between the age of 18 to 44 years old, whereas almost five percent were aged 13 to 17 years old. In June 2018, YaraskyGaming attracted the most followers on Twitch.tv in the Netherlands with his streams of Fortnite and Cities: Skylines.

In 2017, an estimated 16.98 million U.S. creators earned income posting their personal creations on social media platforms. This represents a 16.6 percent increase compared to the previous year. The number of YouTube creators earning money on the platform grew by more than 81 percent, making it the fastest-growing category. Twitch was ranked second with a 58.8 percent growth of U.S. creatives earning an income on the streaming platform.

Few individuals better represent the rise of the YouTube celebrity than Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg, operating on YouTube as PewDiePie. The Swedish YouTuber was the content creator with the largest audience on YouTube for several years, until he was surpassed by American YouTuber MrBeast. As of January 2025, the popular creator had around *** million subscribers. In total, videos on the PewDiePie channel have been viewed approximately ** billion times. Subscribe to PewDiePie meme The surge in subscriber numbers from the end of 2018 onwards is attributable to PewDiePie’s “Subscribe to PewDiePie Meme“, a demonstration of his immense ability to mobilize his subscribers. In the campaign to overtake T-Series and become the channel with the most subscribers, PewDiePie’s challenge required followers to plaster words to the effect of ‘Subscribe to PewDiePie’ wherever possible, either in the physical or digital realms. Despite the obvious success of the campaign in terms of subscriptions, PewDiePie recently called for the campaign to be stopped following three major incidents. In the first a World War II memorial was defaced in New York City, and in March 2019 a gunman uttered the phrase before opening fire on a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing ** people and wounding several more. In April 2019, the gunman who opened fire on a Southern California synagogue, killing one and wounding at least three others, also referred to the campaign.   The rise of the YouTuber Now a decade old, YouTube’s ability to connect content creators with massive audiences has led to the emergence of channels that rival mainstream media outlets in terms of audience size. In some cases, videos can reach 100 million views in just a matter of days . It isn’t just traditional celebrities that are finding audiences either, with channels for kids such as Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes attracting over *** billion views, and generating significant revenue in the process.

According to data published in April 2019, distribution income for TuneCore artists grew by ** percent between 2017 and 2018, and publishing administration royalties grew by ** percent in the same time period. The biggest growth in income came from YouTube monetization, which increased by ** percent. TuneCore is an independent digital music distribution service, and also helps independent musicians with publishing and licensing. By liaising with rights collection agencies across the globe, TuneCore aids musicians with promotion and distribution of their work, and helps them to claim their royalty payments, secure their rights and sell their music via platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, and Amazon Music.

In 2023, the total home video market in the Netherlands generated a revenue of nearly **** billion euros, up from **** billion euros reported in the previous year. Subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) recorded the highest revenues. Netflix and YouTube were the most watched video streaming services in the country in 2024, with domestic providers becoming increasingly popular as well. The gap between TVOD and SVOD in the Netherlands Noticeable in the figures shown here is the large difference between SVOD services such as Netflix and domestic player Videoland versus TVOD. Transactional video-on-demand stands for services like iTunes or Rakuten TV, where customers can, for example, purchase or rent individual movies or series. These services do exist in the Netherlands. Videoland offers this as a feature on its SVOD platform and cinema operator Pathe has TVOD platform Pathe Thuis, where it offers individual purchases for newly released movies. What sets TVOD in the Netherlands apart from SVOD, however, is that Pathe Thuis and television broadcasters KPN and Ziggo do not invest directly in original content. This is where Netflix especially comes in, as Netflix originals were in high demand in the Netherlands in early 2019. The rise of Disney+ in the Netherlands There are more than ** VOD platforms available in the Netherlands and one of the fastest growing services is Disney+. In 2020, the daily active users of the Disney+ app in the Netherlands was higher than those of Amazon Prime or Pathe Thuis. While no data supports this, it is suspected that the service’s catalog as well as Disney originals such as “The Mandalorian” and "Wandavision" are the main drivers for the popularity of Disney+ in the Netherlands.

With roughly three billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2023, Facebook is the most used online social network worldwide. The platform surpassed two billion active users in the second quarter of 2017, taking just over 13 years to reach this milestone. In comparison, Meta-owned Instagram took 11.2 years, and Google’s YouTube took just over 14 years to achieve this landmark. As of January 2022, Facebook’s leading audience base was in India, with almost 330 million users whilst the United States ranked second with an approximate total of 179 million users. The platform also finds remarkable popularity in Indonesia and Brazil. Social Media usage in the United States In January 2021, Facebook was the platform on which users in the United States spent the most time per day. The average time spent on Facebook was 33 minutes, followed by TikTok with 32 minutes and Twitter with 31 daily minutes. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, all major social media platforms saw an increase in daily usage, which then either plateaued or decreased in 2021. At the end of 2021, over a quarter of all Facebook users in the United States belonged to the 25 to 34 year age group and 18.2 percent of users were in the 35 to 44 year age group. In general, Facebook users were more likely to be female. Meta Platforms Meta is Facebook’s recently renamed parent company and had a grand total of 3.59 billion core product users by the final quarter of 2021. Other Meta products include Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus – Meta’s virtual reality subsidiary which produces VR headsets. In 2021, Meta's revenue amounted to 117 billion US dollars, up from around 86 billion U.S. dollars in the previous financial year.

Instagram’s most popular post

              As of April 2024, the most popular post on Instagram was Lionel Messi and his teammates after winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, posted by the account @leomessi. Messi's post, which racked up over 61 million likes within a day, knocked off the reigning post, which was 'Photo of an Egg'. Originally posted in January 2021, 'Photo of an Egg' surpassed the world’s most popular Instagram post at that time, which was a photo by Kylie Jenner’s daughter totaling 18 million likes.
              After several cryptic posts published by the account, World Record Egg revealed itself to be a part of a mental health campaign aimed at the pressures of social media use.

              Instagram’s most popular accounts

              As of April 2024, the official Instagram account @instagram had the most followers of any account on the platform, with 672 million followers. Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) was the most followed individual with 628 million followers, while Selena Gomez (@selenagomez) was the most followed woman on the platform with 429 million. Additionally, Inter Miami CF striker Lionel Messi (@leomessi) had a total of 502 million. Celebrities such as The Rock, Kylie Jenner, and Ariana Grande all had over 380 million followers each.

              Instagram influencers

              In the United States, the leading content category of Instagram influencers was lifestyle, with 15.25 percent of influencers creating lifestyle content in 2021. Music ranked in second place with 10.96 percent, followed by family with 8.24 percent. Having a large audience can be very lucrative: Instagram influencers in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom with over 90,000 followers made around 1,221 US dollars per post.

              Instagram around the globe

              Instagram’s worldwide popularity continues to grow, and India is the leading country in terms of number of users, with over 362.9 million users as of January 2024. The United States had 169.65 million Instagram users and Brazil had 134.6 million users. The social media platform was also very popular in Indonesia and Turkey, with 100.9 and 57.1, respectively. As of January 2024, Instagram was the fourth most popular social network in the world, behind Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp.

Which county has the most Facebook users?

              There are more than 378 million Facebook users in India alone, making it the leading country in terms of Facebook audience size. To put this into context, if India’s Facebook audience were a country then it would be ranked third in terms of largest population worldwide. Apart from India, there are several other markets with more than 100 million Facebook users each: The United States, Indonesia, and Brazil with 193.8 million, 119.05 million, and 112.55 million Facebook users respectively.

              Facebook – the most used social media

              Meta, the company that was previously called Facebook, owns four of the most popular social media platforms worldwide, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Facebook, and Instagram. As of the third quarter of 2021, there were around 3,5 billion cumulative monthly users of the company’s products worldwide. With around 2.9 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the most popular social media worldwide. With an audience of this scale, it is no surprise that the vast majority of Facebook’s revenue is generated through advertising.

              Facebook usage by device
              As of July 2021, it was found that 98.5 percent of active users accessed their Facebook account from mobile devices. In fact, almost 81.8 percent of Facebook audiences worldwide access the platform only via mobile phone. Facebook is not only available through mobile browser as the company has published several mobile apps for users to access their products and services. As of the third quarter 2021, the four core Meta products were leading the ranking of most downloaded mobile apps worldwide, with WhatsApp amassing approximately six billion downloads.

How much does a Super Bowl ad cost in 2025? In 2025, advertisers are paying an average of eight million U.S. dollars to air a 30-second long commercial during the Super Bowl LVI broadcast. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest events on the sporting calendar, but it is so much more than just the football being played on the pitch. The spectacle surrounding the event, which culminates in the legendary half-time show, is hotly anticipated and watched by millions around the world. With so many captive viewers before, during, and after the game, advertisers use the Super Bowl as a means of raising awareness for their products. However, this awareness and visibility comes at a cost – since 2017 the average price of a 30-second TV advertisement during Super Bowl stood at a minimum of five million U.S. dollars and has risen even further in the last few years. Super Bowl ads The Super Bowl commercials have become a phenomenon in their own right, with social media buzzing with speculation about the innovative ways in which big corporations will sell their products. A 2020 survey revealed that 79 percent of viewers see the commercials as entertainment, while almost 71 percent stated that they enjoyed watching the commercials. It also seems the viewers will go to some lengths to see these commercials beyond their original air date during the big game – during the 2019 Super Bowl, consumers spent 641 thousand hours watching Super Bowl ads on YouTube, representing a 58 percent increase over the previous year. Large corporations spend big The allure of a Super Bowl commercial spot is hard to resist for big corporations. Some of the largest Super Bowl advertisers in 2021 included Pepsico and T-Mobile, while Anheuser-Busch sat top of the list, spending 52 million U.S. dollars on advertising during the big game. As a result of this big spending, Super Bowl advertising revenue reached a record 485 million U.S. dollars in 2021, more than twice the figure of 2011.

As of April 2024, almost 32 percent of global Instagram audiences were aged between 18 and 24 years, and 30.6 percent of users were aged between 25 and 34 years. Overall, 16 percent of users belonged to the 35 to 44 year age group.

              Instagram users

              With roughly one billion monthly active users, Instagram belongs to the most popular social networks worldwide. The social photo sharing app is especially popular in India and in the United States, which have respectively 362.9 million and 169.7 million Instagram users each.

              Instagram features

              One of the most popular features of Instagram is Stories. Users can post photos and videos to their Stories stream and the content is live for others to view for 24 hours before it disappears. In January 2019, the company reported that there were 500 million daily active Instagram Stories users. Instagram Stories directly competes with Snapchat, another photo sharing app that initially became famous due to it’s “vanishing photos” feature.
              As of the second quarter of 2021, Snapchat had 293 million daily active users.

As of April 2024, Facebook had an addressable ad audience reach 131.1 percent in Libya, followed by the United Arab Emirates with 120.5 percent and Mongolia with 116 percent. Additionally, the Philippines and Qatar had addressable ad audiences of 114.5 percent and 111.7 percent.