The number of Internet users has passed the 5 billion mark, while more and more people are using social networks all over the world.
In their latest quarterly study on the state of digital, the agency We Are Social and the social platform HootSuite deliver the figures and current trends on the Web, which now has more than 5.03 billion users, with an increase 3.7% over the last twelve months. The increase in the number of Internet users is therefore greater than that of demography, with a world population which reached, according to the UN, 7.98 billion souls in July, an increase of 0.8%. over a year.
Social networks, real sources of information in 2022
At the beginning of July, 5.34 billion users had a mobile phone (4 out of 5 phones are now smartphones), and of the 5.03 billion Internet users, 4.70 billion use social networks today. today. Interestingly, the global social media user base has grown by more than 5%. Nearly 6 out of 10 people in the world are followers of platforms.
Before discussing social networks in more detail, let’s come back to a particular point: the sources of information. Because yes, one of the most interesting conclusions of the study is that more than 4 out of 5 adults get their news via digital channels. This is more than those who watch the news on television: they are only 3 out of 5. Internet users have even acquired habits, since they are two and a half times more tempted to turn to social networks than to newspapers magazines and paper for information.
TikTok is clearly becoming a source of information (the fastest growing among adults in the United Kingdom, by the way), in the same way as the now historic WhatsApp, YouTube and of course Meta, Facebook remaining the preferred social network for follow the news today in the hearts of Internet users.
TikTok goes on fire, Facebook far from dead
Beyond information, the time spent on social platforms continues to climb. It is now 2:29 a day, that is to say more than 75 hours each month. According Data.ai, TikTok confirms its addictive side and wins the prize for time spent watching its content, 23.6 hours each month for an average user of the Android application, outside mainland China. That’s about 5% of waking time watching TikTok videos. SensorTower estimates for its part that this data rises to 48 hours per month. So inevitably, the parent company of TikTok, Bytedance, is gradually advancing advertising in its application, advertising which now affects more than a billion people over the age of 18.
Another data testifies to the scale taken by TikTok. Note, for example, that the time per user of TikTok increased by more than 20% in the first quarter compared to 2021 and that, conversely, the time spent by a user on YouTube has decreased by more than 2%. . This proves that YouTube seems, like services like Netflix and Facebook which have lost subscribers in recent months, to have reached a plateau, while TikTok is still in an upward phase.
And for all that, since we were talking about Facebook, no, the social network of the Meta group is not dead. Meta’s latest ad reach data even shows that its flagship app is doing well. Facebook’s global advertising reach grew by 1.2% in the second quarter of 2022, to a total audience of 2.17 billion users. Facebook reaches more than twice as many people as TikTok currently. Another positive sign that testifies to a new generation arriving on the social network: the Californian giant counted 1.35 million users aged 13 to 19 between April and June 2022. We are not going to say that Facebook is offers a second youth, but the social network is far from dead.
Snapchat, Telegram: it hovers for them
What about other social media? Here, let’s hear from Snapchat. Everything seems to be going well for the ghost application, whose advertising audience has increased by 100 million users since last year, for an annual growth of 20%. The tool remains widely used in the Middle East, in Northern and Western European countries.
Regarding Telegram, know that secure messaging has more than 700 million monthly active users now. In 18 months, the application’s user base has swelled by 200 million, which is colossal. Telegram ranks second among all social platforms in terms of quarterly growth of monthly active users. She is even ahead of TikTok! By number of monthly active users, Telegram retains its sixth place in the world for applications, just behind TikTok, but ahead of Amazon, Twitter, Spotify and Netflix.
The real rise of Reels
With the Reels, these short entertaining videos intended to compete with TikTok, Meta has done well. The format is to such an extent that it has become the armed wing of Mark Zuckerberg’s group. Ads in Instagram’s Reels, for example, can reach 755 million users worldwide. On Facebook, they can reach 473 million users. And it is on this last social network that the impact of the Reel is the craziest, because its audience has increased by 350 million users in the last three months, for a maddening growth of nearly 280%.
In comparison, the growth figures for Instagram Reels are less spectacular. But that does not prevent the format’s audience from growing by 9.9% since April, with 68 million more users affected.
Be careful however, for Facebook, not to be trapped by overdeveloping a format that could live to the detriment of other advertising placements on the platform. Users reached by ads in Facebook Instant Articles or in Facebook Marketplace have declined by 8.4% and 5% respectively since April.
Source : We Are Social
1