Social Media Has Gone Global
When most people speak of social media, the have the ‘Big 3’ in mind: Facebook, Instagram & Twitter. But social media is so much more than just these three platforms. In July 2020, more than half of all the people on Earth now use social media. The recent data show that almost 4 billion people across the planet use social media today, equating to almost 51 percent of the total global population. These numbers show that now nearly two-thirds of the world’s total ‘eligible’ population now uses social media.
Global user numbers have surged by more than 10 percent over the past 12 months, with an average of more than 1 million people starting to use social media for the first time every single day since this time last year. Put simply, this means that more people now use social media than do not.
This milestone is all the more impressive when we consider that most social media companies restrict the use of their platforms to people aged 13 and above. In fact, the latest numbers indicate that nearly two-thirds (65%) of the world’s total ‘eligible’ population now uses social media.
Adoption is still growing rapidly and worldwide user numbers have surged by more than 10% over the past 12 months, with an average of more than 1 million people starting to use social media for the first time every single day since this time last year.
With more than 376 million new users since July 2019, that translates to almost 12 new users every second. The story varies considerably by geography, however. Nearly 70% of the total population in Northern America uses social media today, compared to just 7% in Middle Africa. That figure for Middle Africa rises to 12% if we focus on populations aged 13 and above, but that still means only 1 in 8 people across the region who are eligible to use social media do so today.
Use also differs by gender, with the data suggesting that there are almost 1.2 men for every woman using social media around the world today. This ‘gender divide’ reflects a broader pattern in both mobile and Internet use, but it’s important to stress that the picture varies considerably by country and by region. For example, women account for more than half (55%) of all social media users in Northern America, but barely one quarter (25%) of users across Southern Asia.
Women are also under-represented across Africa, where they account for less than 2 in 5 of the region’s social media users.
However, there are encouraging signs that this gender divide is closing, with our analysis indicating that the global social media ratio has narrowed from a 45:55 split (women to men) at the start of 2020, to 46:54 today.
Facebook continues to dominate our ranking of the world’s most popular social media platforms. The company’s ‘core’ platform now claims more than 2.6 billion monthly active users, while 2 billion people use its top messenger platform, WhatsApp. Instagram has also seen impressive growth over recent weeks, with the company’s latest advertising audience data indicating that more than 1.08 billion people now use the platform each month.
The latest research from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism supports this theory, with the organisation’s new Digital News Report 2020 finding that Twitter remains a popular source of news, especially for people in English-speaking countries.
Social activity is a top driver for social media use, but so is entertainment. “Filling up spare time” and “finding funny and entertaining content” are the second and third most frequently cited reasons for using social media. However, people are also
increasingly turning to social platforms when they want to learn more about products and services that they want to buy.
Based on publicly available data up to 16 July 2020, 16 social media platforms have 300 million or more monthly active users:
1. Facebook has 2.603 billion monthly active users.
2. YouTube has 2 billion monthly active users.
3. WhatsApp has 2 billion monthly active users.
4. Facebook Messenger has 1.3 billion monthly active users.
5. WeChat has 1.203 billion monthly active users.
6. Instagram has a potential advertising reach is roughly 1.08 billion.
7. TikTok has around 800 million monthly active users.
8. QQ has 694 million monthly active users.
9. Sina Weibo has 550 million monthly active users.
10. QZone has 517 million monthly active users.
11. Reddit has 430 million monthly active users.
12. Douyin has 400 million monthly active users
13. Kuaishou has 400 million monthly active users
14. Snapchat’s potential advertising reach is roughly 397 million.
15. Pinterest has 367 million monthly active users.
16. Twitter’s potential advertising reach is roughly 326 million.
With more than 376 million new users since July 2019, that translates to almost 12 new users every second. Globally, social networks are now the second most popular destination for internet users looking for information about brands, with only search engines used by a greater number of people.
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