Social media has transformed marketing, and its popularity continues to grow. This article aims to inform about this evolution, the disparities between platforms, and the opportunities to be seized imminently.

The use of social media is so widespread across many geographical areas worldwide that the most active social networks generate large-scale content in real-time. For instance, on Twitter, an average of 500 million Tweets are posted daily, coming from over 370.9 million platform users. Depending on the time of day, over 9,000 tweets can be sent each second. The number of social media users generating this content is also staggering; on Facebook, for example, there were 2.73 billion active users as of February 2021.

How many social media users in the next 5 years?

According to the 2021 report by We Are Social in collaboration with Hootsuite, the world has 4.55 billion social media users, with 400 million joining in the last 12 months. This figure corresponds to approximately 86.9% among the 4.83 billion internet users currently present online and 57.6% of the global population.

Considering the United Nations’ demographic growth estimates and projected internet penetration rates based on historical trends, the total number of social media users worldwide could potentially exceed 4.75 billion in half a decade. This means nearly 6 out of 10 people on the planet will have an account on a social network, at an annual growth rate of 11.18% since 2010.

That said, this forecast is limited and does not account for the already saturated internet penetration rates in advanced countries. Internet penetration rates continue to skyrocket in developing countries, and it is largely these new online users who will fuel future growth in social media usage.

How many users on mobile?

The growth of smartphone users looks rather robust. Currently, there are 5.29 billion unique mobile users – meaning more than two-thirds of the world has access to a mobile phone. By 2023, smartphone users are expected to be nearly 6.9 billion, which is massive.

The average user spends about 4 hours and 20 minutes on their smartphone daily. With increasing demand from users and customers, app developers have created new features for mobile applications. The trend shows that average daily mobile phone use has increased, and productivity through app solutions has also risen. These massive outcomes clearly show how this industry is rapidly growing and gaining a huge market capitalization.

Mobile advertising is experiencing exponential growth, mainly due to excessive mobile device use and the absence of blocking means like AdBlocker. By 2022, spending on mobile ads is estimated at $240 billion. Before launching a product, marketing and product advertising are very important. Mobile advertising is considered the most effective marketing technique, and many companies worldwide are always ready to spend the largest part of their investments compared to other devices.

What age breakdown?

A breakdown of demographic data by age and gender provides an interesting insight into social media user trends. For example, which age group uses social media the most?

Starting from a general age of eligibility for opening a social media profile at 13, and looking at demographic data from profiles on some of Facebook, the world’s largest social network, it’s clear that 25-34-year-olds are the dominant age group, closely followed by 18-24-year-olds.

Statistics show that Millennials are not surprisingly the most digitally connected, with 90.4% of Millennials in the US being active social media users, followed by 77.5% of Gen X-ers and 48.2% of Baby Boomers. Teenagers make up about 6.7% of the total social media population, but in some countries, up to 9 in 10 teenagers may have been on social media.

Gender-wise, the predominant male demographic bias on social media is broken by Instagram, where influencer models are the norm, and Snapchat, which initially thrived on a privacy-based value proposition where message histories become inaccessible after a short time.

What about platform breakdowns?

By comparing the most popular social networks, it’s possible to examine the number of user accounts or active account use. Apparently, the latter method seems more relevant. In this vein, the total number of internet users equals 61.8% of the global population, is down by 4.2% who are still not active social media users, and open doors for future growth opportunities.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook is the undisputed leader of social networks with 2.85 billion active users every month followed by the giant video YouTube with almost 2.3 billion viewers and then Facebook’s leading properties in their respective fields: WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger respectively gathering 2, 1.38, and 1.3 billion users.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp and FB Messenger dominate the landscape of social messaging applications. However, leading Chinese messengers like WeChat and QQ benefit from the wealth of users that Mainland China has to offer, easily beating other entries from East Asia like Viber and Line.

How much time does an average person spend on social media?

Globally, the average daily use is 2 hours and 27 minutes. However, time spent on social media is primarily cultural. For example, this average drops almost 51 minutes per day on average in Japan, and rises to 4 hours and 15 minutes per day on average in the Philippines.

Aside from cultural differences, the involved social platform also marks some socio-economic distinctions. For example, 45% of those who earn more than $75,000 annually are LinkedIn users.

What about audiences and advertising revenues?

Advertising revenues come from a portion of the total active user base of a social platform that serves as an addressable market. In the case of some of the most popular social networks, nearly all of their monthly active users (MAUs) are also advertising audiences.

Facebook, for example, has an addressable market of just a few tens of millions of users fewer than its total MAU of 2.8 billion. It’s no wonder there are over 65 million local business pages on Facebook in the US alone.

While Facebook has a few additional revenue sources, advertising makes up a significant portion of its total revenues. And since a social network’s advertising audience is almost its entire MAU, Facebook naturally has a gargantuan lead over its competitors in terms of advertising revenue.

How do consumers engage with different post formats on social media?

Marketers intuitively know that the right type of visuals and videos are more effective in driving engagement. This is corroborated by observed interaction rates. According to LinkedIn, images typically result in a comment rate twice as high, and video gets 5 times more engagement, with live video getting 24 times more.

Videos over a minute long had the highest median interactions and reaches on Facebook. In 2020, the median reach of very long videos (over five minutes) was about 9,700, which is 44.8% higher than long videos. In fact, for both reach and interactions, there was a correlation showing that the longer a video, the more reach and interactions it received.