Meta owning 2 of top-3 social media but TikTok fastest growing

Author Moonshot.news

Published on: 02/02/2024

TikTok – stands out for growth of its user base. 33% say they use platform, up 12 percentage points from 2021. Meta owns two of the top three social media: Facebook and Instagram. The number one is Alphabet-owned YouTube, according to a US survey of adults use of social media by Pew Research Centre. Meta’s quarterly report just showed 25% growth in revenue to more than USD 40 billion and that it for the first time will pay dividend.

“Social media platforms faced a range of controversies in recent years, including concerns over misinformation and data privacy. Even so, US adults use a wide range of sites and apps, especially YouTube and Facebook. And TikTok – which some Congress members previously called to ban – saw growth in its user base”m the Pew notes.

83% report ever using YouTube while 68% report using  Facebook. In connection with presenting its latest quarterly report, Meta announced that it will stop reporting uer numbers for Facebook. The statement is seen by commentators as confirmation of that Facebook does not any more attract younger users and that numbers in longer term perspective will be stagnating or shrinking with a possible effect on advertising sales. 47% say they use Instagram.

The other sites and apps asked about are not as widely used, but a fair portion of Americans still use them:

• 27% to 35% of US adults use Pinterest, TikTok, LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Snapchat.
• About one-in-five say they use Twitter (renamed “X”) and Reddit.  

Age gaps are especially large for Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok – platforms that are used by majorities of adults under 30:

• 78% of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use Instagram, far higher than the share among those 65 and older (15%).
• 65% of U.S. adults under 30 report using Snapchat, compared with just 4% of the oldest age cohort.
• 62% of 18- to 29-year-olds say they use TikTok, much higher than the share among adults ages 65 years and older (10%).
• Americans ages 30 to 49 and 50 to 64 fall somewhere in between for all three platforms.

“YouTube and Facebook are the only two platforms that majorities of all age groups use. That said, there is still a large age gap between the youngest and oldest adults when it comes to use of YouTube. The age gap for Facebook, though, is much smaller.”

“Americans ages 30 to 49 stand out for using three of the platforms – LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Facebook – at higher rates: 40% of this age group uses LinkedIn, higher than the roughly three-in-ten among those ages 18 to 29 and 50 to 64. And just 12% of those 65 and older say the same.”

Overall, a large majority of the youngest adults use multiple sites and apps. About three-quarters of adults under 30 (74%) use at least five of the platforms asked about. This is far higher than the shares of those ages 30 to 49 (53%), 50 to 64 (30%), and ages 65 and older (8%) who say the same.  

• Women are more likely than their male counterparts to say they use Instagram..

• Women use TikTok at higher rates than men (40% vs. 25%).
•  53% with at least a bachelor’s degree report using the platform, far higher than among those who have some college education (28%) and those who have a high school degree or less education (10%). This is the largest educational difference measured across any of the platforms.

• Adults with higher household incomes use Twitter/X at somewhat higher rates: 29% who have an annual household income of at least $100,000 say they use the platform. This compares with one-in-five among those with annual household incomes of $70,000 to $99,999, and around one-in-five among those with annual incomes of less than $30,000 and those between $30,000 and $69,999.

• Women are far more likely to use Pinterest than men (50% vs. 19%).