In a world where time is so valuable, social media appears to be an inevitable necessity.
Today, social media is used by 59.3% of the world’s population. The figure is expected to rise to nearly six billion by 2027, up from around 4.26 billion today.
The social media landscape became much more diverse in 2022 as other new players entered the fray. The introduction of new players has caused global trends to shift and reshuffle in social media’s most important leaderboard.
Importance of social media and messaging apps.
There are still some people who refuse to use social media and messaging apps in this day and era. In today’s digitalized world, these apps are useful in almost every aspect of our lives, making them a necessity. Some of the advantages of using social media and messaging apps are listed below.
Social media and messaging apps have completely transformed how people interact with each other, and brands, and this trend is only accelerating.
Today, 70% of people agree that they expect to have conversations with brands on social media. However, finding ways to speak directly to your customers can be intimidating.
You may be wondering how you can incorporate conversational marketing into your strategy, using social media and messaging apps is unquestionably the best way to accomplish this.
Marketers can connect with people one on one through social media and messaging apps by creating impactful, personalized touchpoints. These channels are accessible to consumers.
Above all, using these apps can save you time and money.
The top 10 social media and messaging apps
Despite competition from other small networks for market share, meta’s platforms continue to dominate due to their global technology.
The following are the top ten most popular social media and messaging apps in the world.
#1. Facebook
Facebook reigns supreme among social media platforms.
As of January 2023, Facebook had 2.9 billion active users, a figure that is increasing at a rate of roughly 500,000 new users per day, or six new users every second.
In comparison to other social media platforms, Facebook is the most popular among users aged 12 to 34, though their share of the demographic in the US is steadily declining.
Here are some interesting Facebook usage statistics
India has the most active Facebook users(290 million), followed by the US(190 million) and Indonesia third (140 million)
In the united states, 73% of all Facebook users log in daily, 93% use Facebook every week, and 98% visit at least once a month.
Despite ongoing criticism of facebook’s role in spreading misinformation, 36% of US citizens say they use the platform as a source of news regularly. American uses Facebook for up to 38 minutes per day.
#2. YouTube
Youtube, owned by Alphabet, is the only competitor to meta’s scale and reach.
Despite facebook’s enormous popularity, it is not the most visited website on the planet. Surprisingly, YouTube’s 34.6 billion monthly visits outnumber its 25.5 billion.
Youtube is our second most popular social media platform, with a whopping 2.3 billion registered users.
However, because anyone can watch youtube content, whether or not they are registered users, this figure may not be an accurate representation of the platform’s true popularity.
#3. Whatsapp
Whatsapp is a messaging platform with a daily messaging volume of 100 billion messages.
It was founded in 2009 by two former Yahoo! Employees with intention of simply displaying “statutes” next to the names of each entry in a user’s address book, rather than being an instant messaging app.
In January 2022, there were two billion monthly users of WhatsApp messenger. The app’s reach and usage penetration are especially strong outside of the US, and it is one of the most popular mobile social apps globally.
#4. Messenger
Messenger is the meta’s most used feature. Its first incarnation was “facebook chat”, a simple instant messaging feature introduced into the Facebook environment in 2008.
Although the app is independent of the Facebook platform, it is still integrated into the user interface. Messenger has a monthly active user of over 1.3 billion.
#5. Instagram
With 1.22 billion global active users, the world’s most popular photo-sharing app ranks fifth.
Instagram’s demographic appeals primarily to users under the age of 35, accounting for 71% of the app’s user base.
#6. WeChat
Tencent’s WeChat is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app. It was first released in 2011, and by 2018, it had grown to become the world’s largest standalone mobile app, with over 1 billion monthly active users.
It’s no surprise that WeChat ranks so high on our list, with a plethora of features that allow users to do everything from sending text messages and making video calls to processing digital payments and playing video games.
#7. TikTok
Facebook and its related apps have always dominated social media. When a new competitor emerged, Facebook either acquired it (Instagram, WhatsApp) or “acquired” its features (Snapchat)
TikTok is the first challenger to maintain its momentum and growth even as Instagram rolled out very similar features.
Mention TikTok when discussing overnight’s success stories. The video-sharing platform debuted on the international stage in 2017 and quickly began amassing adoption figures that competitors week onto their keyboards.
TikTok was in the top 5 of the world’s most downloaded apps two years after it first appeared on the social media landscape.
It reached number 1 a year later, with a staggering 250 million downloads. The fledgling social network outperformed its nearest competitor WhatsApp.
It is a favorite of the crucial Gen Z demographic. TikTok has a monthly active user of 732 million.
#8. Telegram
Telegram is a messaging app that is well known for providing end-to-end encryption, to put it another way, “secret messaging”
It also supports “self-destructing” messages, similar to Snapchat.
Telegram has 700 million monthly active users.
#9. Douyin
Douyin is TikTok for the Chinese market. The two platforms share the same parent company and core functionality, but they are two distinct apps marketed to two distinct demographics.
Unlike TikTok, Douyin has embraced user monetization and provided more concrete mechanisms for content creators to generate revenue streams from their videos, primarily by integrating with popular Chinese eCommerce platforms such as Taobao.
The majority of Douyin’s users (80%) are between the ages of 19 and 40. As a result, it is an excellent place for Chinese businesses to reach out to the younger generation.
However, Douyin limits the amount of time that younger children can spend on the app. This is unusual for social media platforms.
This platform has 600 million monthly active users.
#10. QQ
QQ, after WeChat and Douyin, is china’s most popular social media platform. It is also another property owned by the Chinese conglomerate, Tencent.
The software’s exceptional handling of file transfers contributed to QQ’s early rise to dominance as a business communication platform.
This created a network effect in which businesses simply had to be on QQ because all of their partners, vendors, and clients were.
The only platform in the top ten social media and messaging apps that are not based in the US or China is Telegram, a privacy-focused messaging app based in Dubai.
Troubles of Metaverse
Despite meta’s platforms dominating top social media and messaging apps, there has been trouble in the metaverse.
When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company’s name change to the metaverse, he sketched a vision of utopian future many years in the future in which billions of people would inhabit immersive digital environments for hours on end, working, socializing, and playing games inside virtual and augmented worlds.
Meta has since spent billions of dollars and assigned thousands of employees to make this dream a reality, but the journey has been bumpy.
In 2022, meta experienced its first quarterly revenue decline. The company has lost more than 3 billion dollars. The drop in income is primarily due to meta’s massive investment in the metaverse.
The company is in even more trouble after uninspiring earnings and a clear lack of faith in mark zuckerberg’s metaverse vision sent its shares down to 25%.
However, the company may recover, but it may also be reaping what it has sown for years.
Other popular apps on the rise
Neighborhood-based social networks have emerged and gained traction in recent years.
Nextdoor is a neighborhood app where you get local tips, buy and sell items, and more. Its members post about more benign topics like lost cats.
Because crime is becoming a more prevalent theme in neighborhoods apps such as Neighbours and Citizen have a more overt focus on crime and safety.
The proliferation of these apps reflects an obvious interest in preventing crime. However, because these types of social networks are still relatively new, it remains to be seen whether they will remain niche communities or grow into something bigger.
Conclusion
Today’s social media universe contains both risks and opportunities. There are so many social media platforms and others are emerging.
The largest platform, in this massive social network, has created moats that make life difficult for upstart brands looking to replace established platforms.
However, controversy on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook may lead some users to consider new options. There is also dissatisfaction with major platforms, and the big question is whether this is a fad, or whether emerging networks like Mastodon or BeReal will reach critical mass staples. Only time will tell.
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