The size of every social network in the world, compared in one wonderful graph

27-11-22

Social networks have become important tools in the daily lives of millions of people. In total, 4.65 billion people on the planet use them. That's 58.7% of the world's population, many of whom use them as their main source of information. And we're not just talking about Americans (although 84% use at least one), China now has over 1 billion users, even though it still has 415 million citizens without Internet access.

In 2022, the digital social universe looks more crowded than in previous years, with many new guests competing. While the huge size of the Meta platforms still dominates thanks to their global reach, there are a number of smaller networks fighting for market share.

The top 10 social networks and messaging platforms are: Facebook (2.9 billion), YouTube (2.3 billion), WhatsApp (2 billion), Messenger (1.3 billion), Instagram (1.2 billion), WeChat (1.2 billion), TikTok (732 million), Telegram (700 million), Douyin (600 million) and QQ (595 million).

This chart by Visual Capitalist illustrates how this social universe is constructed and ranks the most popular platforms according to their monthly user bases.

Facebook is the largest network, with more than 2.3 billion people using it every month. This means that approximately 36.9% of the world's population are Facebook users. More than 200 million businesses (mainly SMEs) use its tools and more than seven million advertisers promote their businesses there.

YouTube is Meta's only competition. Alphabet's video platform has more than 2 billion monthly active users. In addition to being the second largest social network, YouTube is also said to be the second largest search engine after Google, its parent company.

As the infographic shows, China has its own ecosystem of large social and messaging platforms, but its flagship is Tencent's WeChat, which has 1.2 billion monthly users.

The only platform in the top 20 not based in either the US or China is the privacy-focused messaging app Telegram. The Dubai-based company was created after the founders of Russian social network VK left the country after resisting government pressure to publish data on Ukrainian users.

Yes, let's face it, social networking has always been dominated by Facebook and its sisters. Because basically, when a new rival appeared, Facebook acquired it (Instagram, WhatsApp), or copied its features (Snapchat). However, TikTok has been the first real enemy to maintain a high growth rate, even as other platforms like Instagram are copying its features.

The short-form video platform has also managed to transcend from Asia into the Western market and was the number one downloaded app on the planet, becoming a favourite of Generation Z.

On the other hand, there are a handful of platforms that serve specific functions. OnlyFans, for example, focuses on adult content creators. Parler and Truth Social appeal to users who want fewer restrictions on the content they post and consume. BeReal aims to create more authentic moments by asking users to post a photo at a random time each day.

In addition to all this incipient creation of new places to socialise in a different way, there are now different controversies on traditional platforms with Twitter and Facebook in the limelight. The recent acquisition of Twitter by the billionaire Elon Musk has created chaos in the last few weeks, with hundreds of employees resigning en masse and millions of users showing their rejection by abandoning the platform. On Twitter, everyone is convinced that every day is Twitter's last day.

And of course, we know that this widespread (albeit temporary) discontent could lead to a boost in other emerging networks such as Mastodon, which could reach numbers that were unthinkable a few months ago and become those pillars that people need in their day-to-day lives. As we have always seen, no social network is free from death.

To see a high resolution graphic, click here

Author: Albert Sanchis