Instagram is growing the fastest of all social media sites worldwide, followed by Reddit, while Facebook’s global audience fell 3% in 2013, according to new data.
The study, from Global Web Index, found that the Facebook-owned photo sharing app Instagram increased its active user base by 23% in the last six months.
However, on an overall basis, Instagram still lags behind the likes of Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter and LinkedIn.
The survey, based on responses from some 170,000 users across 32 countries, notes that Facebook is currently the world’s most popular social network.
Excluding China (where free access to sites like Facebook and Google is problematic), over 80% of the rest of the respondents said they had registered Facebook accounts; and around 50% said they were active users — also the highest proportion of any social platform.
The ‘GWI Social’ report, which aims to provide an overview of the latest global trends in social media usage indicates that Facebook retains its position as the number one social platform.
GWI Social shows that it’s now 25-34s – rather than the coveted 16-24s – who form the greatest share of active users.
Yet Facebook is not alone here: the age profile of users on most of the major social platforms is shifting upwards and 16-24s lead only on Instagram, Tumblr and YouTube.
App market – Vine up 105%
The app sector has the mosty impressive figures, with Vine users increasing a massive 105%, while all of the messenger apps we track recorded increases – some of them explosive in scale.
Facebook Messenger’s global increase of 13% sees it remain the most popular social tool competing in this area, but there were much more dramatic rises in estimated user numbers for WhatsApp (+35%), Snapchat (+54%) and, most significantly, WeChat (+379% – and now only just behind Facebook Messenger). Tellingly, 16-24s are heavy users across all of these platforms.
Mobile is driving growth elsewhere, too. Mobile users are some of the most frequent and active networkers, while a wide range of behaviors are experiencing growth via mobile devices (at the same time as decreases on PCs and laptops).
Source: https://www.globalwebindex.net/