1

Introduction 4

Social App Financials 6

Quarterly and Annual Revenues 10

Facebook Revenue 10

Instagram Revenue 12

Facebook and Instagram Revenue Breakdown 14

YouTube Revenue 15

LinkedIn Revenue 17

Twitter Revenue 19

Snapchat Revenue 21

TikTok Revenue 23

Pinterest Revenue 25

WhatsApp Revenue 27

Average Revenue Per User 28

Annual ARPU Growth 29

Annual Growth 30

Net Income or Loss 31

Facebook Net Income/Loss 31

Twitter Net Income/Loss 33

Snapchat Net Income/Loss 35

Pinterest Net Income/Loss 37

Social App Usage 39

Quarterly Users 41

Facebook Users 41

Instagram Users 43

WhatsApp Users 44

YouTube Users 45

LinkedIn Users 46

Twitter Users 47

Snapchat Users 49

TikTok Users 50

Pinterest Users 51
 2

BeReal Users 52

Number of Social Media Accounts 53

Peak Usage of Defunct Social Apps 54

Social App Downloads 55

Individual Social App Downloads 56

Facebook Downloads 56

Instagram Downloads 57

WhatsApp Downloads 58

TikTok Downloads 59

Snapchat Downloads 60

YouTube Downloads 61

Twitter Downloads 62

Pinterest Downloads 63

LinkedIn Downloads 64

BeReal Downloads 65

Social App Demographics 66

Facebook Users by Country 66

Instagram Users by Country 67

WhatsApp Users by Country 68

YouTube Users by Country 69

LinkedIn Users by Country 70

Twitter Users by Country 71

Snapchat Users by Country 72

TikTok Users by Country 73

Pinterest Users by Country 74

App Users by Age 75

Facebook Users by Age 75

Instagram Users by Age 76

WhatsApp Users by Age 77

YouTube Users by Age 78

LinkedIn Users by Age 79

Twitter Users by Age 80

 3

Snapchat Users by Age 81

TikTok Users by Age 82

Pinterest Users by Age 83

BeReal Users by Age 84

App Users by Gender 85

Facebook Users by Gender 86

Instagram Users by Gender 87

WhatsApp Users by Gender 88

YouTube Users by Gender 89

LinkedIn Users by Gender 90

Twitter Users by Gender 91

Snapchat Users by Gender 92

TikTok Users by Gender 93

Pinterest Users by Gender 94

BeReal Users by Gender 95

Social App Benchmarks 96

Average Time Spent 96

Average Time Spent by Platform 98

Average Time Spent by Country 99

Engagement 100

Daily Engagement With App 100

Engagement Rate by Following 101

Engagement with Influencers by Platform 102

Micro-Influencer Engagement Rate by Platform 102

Influencers Lead to Purchase by Platform 103

Marketers Planning to Use the Platform 103

Content Sharing Type by Platform 103

Advertising 103

Click-Through Rate 104

Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM) 105

Conclusion 105
 4

Introduction
The average smartphone user spends 2 hours and 20 minutes a day or 70
hours on social media apps every month and 55% of the population, or 4.88
billion people, have social media accounts. It is the most popular type of
internet service, responsible for hundreds of billions of interactions every day.

In the late 1990s, as the internet was moving to web 2.0 stage, several online
messaging and social networks launched with new multimedia services,
propelling them to new levels of popularity. LiveJournal was the first on the
scene in 1999, with MySpace, Facebook, Okrut and Bebo all launching
between 2003 and 2005.

The 2000s saw these social networks compete for more users, with Facebook
surpassing MySpace in 2008 to become the most popular social network
worldwide. Qzone and VK were both launched as clones of Facebook for
Chinese and Russian users. Twitter launched in 2006 and Tumblr in 2007, both
cast as “microblogging” platforms.

Apple’s iPhone brought new life into the social media landscape, leading to the
creation of apps like Instagram, Path, Snapchat, Keek and Vine in the early
2010s. Facebook would struggle with mobile to begin with, but acquisitions of
Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 bolstered its position as the most
popular social networking company in the world.

As the social media market started to mature, fewer apps were launched and
several either folded (Google+, Orkut, Friendster) or were reworked by new
owners, in the case of MySpace and Bebo. The mid-2010s saw the launch of
video-first apps, such as Periscope and Musical.ly, the latter of which was
acquired by ByteDance in 2017 and merged into TikTok in 2018.

Social media continuously evolves and while there is less competition in some
areas, new ideas come out of new technologies or changing user preferences.
 5

Clubhouse introduced live audio conversations, which have been added into
Twitter and LinkedIn. BeReal launched as the anti-Instagram, focusing solely
on the user’s friends and “authenticity”.

The next five years has many branching ideas of social interaction, such as the
metaverse, augmented reality and new creator monetisation tools, which
could introduce new players to the social app ecosystem or further entrench
the leaders, as we have seen happen with the decline of Clubhouse.

Any questions or feedback please contact david@businessofapps.com

 6

Social App Financials

Social App Revenues

Facebook leads the way in revenue generation, responsible for 67% of total
revenues for the social apps featured.

Social App Revenues Q1 2010 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

If you want to view this graph as an interactive, click here

 7

Social App Revenues Q1 2015 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 8

Social App Revenues Q1 2015 to Q3 2022 excluding Meta Platforms ($mm)

 9

Social App Revenues in 2021 ($mm)

 10

Quarterly and Annual Revenues

Facebook Revenue

Facebook has consistently grown its revenue year-on-year. Over 90% of its
revenue generation is from its advertising business.

Facebook Quarterly Revenue Q1 2010 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 11

Facebook Annual Revenue 2010 to 2021 ($mm)

 12

Instagram Revenue

Facebook has grown Instagram’s ad platform from zero revenue to an

estimated $47 billion business in 2021. Revenues are not publicly disclosed,
however leaked internal documents reveal Instagram is responsible for almost
50% of Facebook’s revenue.

Instagram Quarterly Revenue Q1 2015 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 13

Instagram Annual Revenue 2015 to 2021 ($bn)

 14

Facebook and Instagram Revenue Breakdown

Instagram is set to surpass the Facebook app in revenue by 2023. In Q3 2022,

Instagram contributed 44% to Meta Platforms total revenue.

Facebook and Instagram Revenue Breakdown Q1 2015 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 15

YouTube Revenue

YouTube has seen its revenue increase by 45% in 2021, to $28.8 billion. It has
the highest revenue share with its creators out of all the apps covered.

YouTube Quarterly Revenue Q1 2015 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 16

YouTube Annual Revenue 2015 to 2021 ($mm)

 17

LinkedIn Revenue

LinkedIn has a different model to most social media companies, relying more
on users subscribing to premium services. Under Microsoft, LinkedIn has
grown its revenue at an average of 21.3% each year.

LinkedIn Quarterly Revenue Q1 2010 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 18

LinkedIn Annual Revenue 2010 to 2021 ($bn)

 19

Twitter Revenue

Twitter struggled in the mid-2010s, with revenues contracting by 3% in 2017.

It has reported four years of solid growth and new initiatives.

Twitter Quarterly Revenue Q1 2012 to Q2 2022 ($mm)

 20

Twitter Annual Revenue 2012 to 2021 ($bn)

 21

Snapchat Revenue

In six years, Snapchat has built out its ad platform to be competitive in some
areas with Facebook, although overall revenues are still much lower. Revenues
increased by 75% in 2021, but have slowed in 2022.

Snapchat Quarterly Revenue Q1 2015 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 22

Snapchat Annual Revenue 2015 to 2021 ($mm)

 23

TikTok Revenue

TikTok revenues increased by 654% in 2020 and 77% in 2021. It is a small part
of ByteDance’s overall revenue, which was $58 billion in 2021.

TikTok Quarterly Revenue Q1 2017 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 24

TikTok Annual Revenue 2017 to 2021 ($mm)

 25

Pinterest Revenue

Pinterest takes up a smaller slice of the advertising pie, however, it has seen
revenues increase by 54.4% on average over the past four years. Revenue
growth has slowed in 2022.

Pinterest Quarterly Revenue Q1 2016 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 26

Pinterest Annual Revenue 2015 to 2021 ($bn)

 27

WhatsApp Revenue

Compared to Facebook and Instagram, WhatsApp is far behind in revenue. It

has not managed to increase its revenues significantly over the pandemic.

WhatsApp Quarterly Revenue Q1 2018 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 28

Average Revenue Per User

Instagram has the highest average revenue per user, at over $25. Outside of
the U.S., ARPU is much lower on most social media apps.

Worldwide Average Revenue Per User 2021 ($)

 29

Annual ARPU Growth

Facebook and Instagram are ahead of the pack, with Snapchat, LinkedIn and
YouTube all in the $10 to $15 range.

Social App Average Revenue Per User 2010 to 2021 ($)

If you want to view this graph as an interactive, click here

 30

Annual Growth
Apart from Twitter, all social media companies have seen year-on-year growth.
Instagram’s growth has offset some of Facebook’s decline.

Social App Annual Revenue Growth 2011 to 2021 (%)

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Facebook 87 37 54 58 43 48 41 24 16 6 14
Instagram 210 122 152 71 50 77
WhatsApp 14 24 25
YouTube 20 21 41 32 30 45
LinkedIn 114 86 57 45 34 23 21 16 28 19 43
Twitter 109 111 58 14 -3 24 13 7 36
Snapchat 583 104 43 45 46 75
TikTok 141 133 654 77
Pinterest 210 58 60 51 48 50

Note: Facebook annual growth values are deflated due to incorporation of Instagram growth
 31

Net Income or Loss

Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, WhatsApp and YouTube are excluded from this
section. All but TikTok are likely profitable, however we cannot estimate the
values accurately.

Facebook Net Income/Loss

Facebook has seen rapid increases in net income over the past four years, but
the large investment in the metaverse is expected to reduce net income in
2022 and beyond.

Facebook Quarterly Net Income/Loss Q1 2010 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 32

Facebook Annual Net Income 2010 to 2021 ($bn)

 33

Twitter Net Income/Loss

Twitter’s net income has been sporadic, however it started to see real progress
in 2018 with $1.2 billion in annual net income and $1.4 billion the next year.
The coronavirus pandemic dented two years of growth, although it managed
to avoid slipping back into the red.

Twitter Quarterly Net Income/Loss Q1 2012 to Q2 2022 ($mm)

 34

Twitter Annual Net Income/Loss 2010 to 2021 ($mm)

 35

Snapchat Net Income/Loss

Snapchat reported its first quarterly net income in Q4 2021. 2022 has been
rough for the social app, reporting three of its largest quarterly losses.

Snapchat Quarterly Net Income/Loss Q1 2015 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 36

Snapchat Annual Net Loss 2015 to 2021 ($mm)

 37

Pinterest Net Income/Loss

Pinterest reported its largest quarterly net income of $207 million in Q4 2020.
It reported its first annual net income in 2021.

Pinterest Quarterly Net Income/Loss Q1 2017 to Q3 2022 ($mm)

 38

Pinterest Annual Net Income/Loss 2016 to 2021 ($mm)

 39

Social App Usage

Social App Users

Four social apps have cracked the two billion mark: Facebook, YouTube,
WhatsApp and Instagram. TikTok should reach that milestone by 2023.

Social App Users Q2 2008 to Q3 2022 (mm)

To see this chart as an interactive, click here.

 40

Social App Users in 2022 (bn)

 41

Quarterly Users
One of the key metrics social media apps reference is active users, but there
are several variations of the meaning “active”. These differences are noted in
the chart titles.

Facebook Users

Facebook is the most used social media app in the world, with 1.9 billion
people accessing it daily and 2.9 billion accessing once a month.

Facebook Daily Active Users Q1 2011 to Q3 2022 (mm)

 42

Facebook Monthly Active Users Q2 2008 to Q3 2022 (mm)

 43

Instagram Users

Instagram reached two billion users in Q3 2021. User growth accelerated

during the coronavirus pandemic, and from the Indian government banning
TikTok in Q2 2020.

Instagram Monthly Active Users Q1 2013 to Q3 2022 (mm)

 44

WhatsApp Users

WhatsApp is on track to surpass Facebook in monthly active users by 2024,

with the app still growing while Facebook MAUs have stagnated.

WhatsApp Monthly Active Users Q1 2012 to Q3 2022 (mm)

 45

YouTube Users

YouTube surpassed 2.5 billion monthly active users in 2021. It is the most
popular video-first service, although TikTok is growing at a faster rate.

YouTube Monthly Active Users Q1 2010 to Q3 2022 (mm)

 46

LinkedIn Users

LinkedIn figures cover the number of registered accounts instead of active

users. According to LinkedIn, 40 million users apply for jobs every week and
100 million job applications are sent per month.

LinkedIn Registered Accounts Q1 2009 to Q3 2022 (mm)

 47

Twitter Users

Twitter has steadily increased its monetisable daily active users since first
reporting the metric in Q1 2017.

Twitter Monetisable Daily Active Users Q1 2017 to Q2 2022 (mm)

 48

Twitter Monthly Active Users and mDAUs Q1 2010 to Q2 2022 (mm)

 49

Snapchat Users

Snapchat records daily active users (DAUs), which has increased every quarter
since Q1 2019. Snapchat stagnated during 2018, but has rejuvenated its
growth, primarily due to international markets.

Snapchat Daily Active Users Q1 2014 to Q3 2022 (mm)

 50

TikTok Users

TikTok has seen rapid growth over the past two years and was the most
downloaded app in 2020. It did suffer slightly in Q3 2020, after India banned
the app. It reached one billion users in Q3 2021.

TikTok Monthly Active Users Q1 2018 to Q3 2022 (mm)

 51

Pinterest Users

Pinterest saw significant growth in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic,

adding 92 million users. Active users have declined in 2021 and 2022, from a
peak of 478 million in Q1 2021 to 445 million in Q3 2022.

Pinterest Monthly Active Users Q1 2016 to Q3 2022 (mm)

 52

BeReal Users

BeReal has grown rapidly in 2022, from less than one million users in
mid-2021 to over 20 million users accessing the app daily. It had about 70
million MAUs in August 2022.

BeReal Daily Active Users 2021 to October 2022 (mm)

 53

Number of Social Media Accounts

The number of social media accounts is set to surpass 5 billion in 2022. The
total number was at 4.88 billion at the end of 2021, with 550 million accounts
added from June 2020 to June 2021.

Number of Social Media Accounts Worldwide 2014 to 2021 (bn)

 54

Peak Usage of Defunct Social Apps

Several social media platforms have reached high peaks in the past, but
ultimately for one reason or another closed their doors. Orkut and Google+,
both operated by Google, were two of the largest with 300 million peak users.

Peak Active Users on Default Social Platforms (mm)

 55

Social App Downloads

Social App Downloads

Facebook held the top spot for downloads for five years, with Facebook and
WhatsApp, but TikTok surpassed it in 2020 and kept the title in 2021.

Social App Downloads 2015 to 2021 (mm)

 56

Individual Social App Downloads

Facebook Downloads

Facebook annual downloads have declined every year since 2016, with its
largest decline in 2021 to 416 million downloads.

Facebook Annual Downloads 2015 to 2021 (mm)

 57

Instagram Downloads

Instagram annual downloads have increased every year, with higher growth in
2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic and TikTok ban.

Instagram Annual Downloads 2015 to 2021 (mm)

 58

WhatsApp Downloads

WhatsApp was the most downloaded app of 2017, 2018 and 2018, before
being dethroned by TikTok. It was downloaded 395 million times in 2021.

WhatsApp Annual Downloads 2015 to 2021 (mm)

 59

TikTok Downloads

TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2020 and 2021. In Q1 2020, it was
downloaded 318 million times, the highest quarterly download figure for an
app outside of China.

TikTok Annual Downloads 2016 to 2021 (mm)

 60

Snapchat Downloads

Snapchat had a rocky 2017, with the launch of Instagram Stories stealing some
of its thunder. Most downloads and new users in 2020 and 2021 are from
non-US users.

Snapchat Annual Downloads 2015 to 2021 (mm)

 61

YouTube Downloads

YouTube’s rather low download figures are due to it coming pre-installed on

most Android devices. The majority of downloads are from iOS.

YouTube Annual Downloads 2015 to 2021 (mm)

 62

Twitter Downloads

Twitter has seen download growth in the past two years, after five years of
stagnation in the 100 million to 130 million annual downloads range.

Twitter Annual Downloads 2015 to 2021 (mm)

 63

Pinterest Downloads

Pinterest also received a healthy boost from the pandemic, with downloads
increasing 54% in 2020.

Pinterest Annual Downloads 2015 to 2021 (mm)

 64

LinkedIn Downloads

LinkedIn has far fewer downloads than the rest of the social apps, which is to
be expected as it is used primarily for work. It has a high volume of traffic from
desktop as well, in comparison to other social apps.

LinkedIn Annual Downloads 2015 to 2021 (mm)

 65

BeReal Downloads

BeReal has been downloaded 67.2 million times since launch, with the vast
majority of downloads happening in 2022.

BeReal Cumulative Downloads 2021 to October 2022 (mm)

 66

Social App Demographics

App Users by Country

In this section, we will cover how many users an app has in each country.

Facebook Users by Country

While India has a lower Facebook adoption rate (30.1%) than other countries,
it surpasses them on the sheer size of the country’s population.

Facebook Users by Country 2021 (mm)

 67

Instagram Users by Country

The majority of Instagram’s growth in the past two years has come from low
and middle-income countries, such as Brazil, India and Indonesia. India
surpassed US as Instagram’s largest market in 2021.

Instagram Users by Country 2021 (mm)

 68

WhatsApp Users by Country

WhatsApp is the top messaging app in over 100 countries and has over 90%
penetration in over two dozen African countries.

WhatsApp Users by Country 2021 (mm)

 69

YouTube Users by Country

YouTube has similar figures to Facebook, which is to be expected as like

Facebook, it is the most popular social app of its category and broadly popular
across every region except China.

YouTube Users by Country 2021 (mm)

 70

LinkedIn Users by Country

28% of LinkedIn users are from the United States, by far LinkedIn’s most
popular country.

LinkedIn Users by Country 2021 (mm)

 71

Twitter Users by Country

Twitter has the highest proportion of Japanese users out of all social media
platforms in this study. It has not seen as much growth in developing nations,
in comparison to Facebook and Instagram.

Twitter Users by Country 2021 (mm)

 72

Snapchat Users by Country

Snapchat has seen its popularity in Europe and the Middle East grow over the
past two years, as usage in the United States has started to stagnate.

Snapchat Users By Country 2021 (mm)

 73

TikTok Users by Country

TikTok values do not include Mainland China, as ByteDance operates a

separate app called Douyin in the country. TikTok had 190 million users in
India before it was banned in June 2020.

TikTok Users By Country 2021 (mm)

 74

Pinterest Users by Country

Pinterest is primarily used by people in the US, although it has growing usage
in Brazil, Mexico and Germany.

Pinterest Users By Country 2021 (mm)

 75

App Users by Age

In this section, we will cover the age demographics of each social app.

Facebook Users by Age

While Facebook was originally an app for college students, its average age has
increased every year since 2013. Teenagers have also migrated to newer apps,
such as Instagram and Snapchat, for their social interactions.

Facebook Users by Age 2021 (%)

 76

Instagram Users by Age

In comparison to Facebook, Instagram’s audience is younger, however the

average age is still steadily increasing and higher than Snapchat and TikTok.

Instagram Users by Age 2021 (%)

 77

WhatsApp Users by Age

WhatsApp trends older than Facebook and Instagram, primarily due to the
messaging app being one of the primary forms of communication for millions
of families.

WhatsApp Users by Age 2021 (%)

 78

YouTube Users by Age

YouTube does not have a clear target demographic, with videos and channels
available for every type of user. This is reflected in the age demographics.

YouTube Users by Age 2021 (%)

 79

LinkedIn Users by Age

The vast majority of LinkedIn users are between the ages of 25-34, which is
the second highest age bracket in employment in the UK and US.

LinkedIn Users by Age 2021 (%)

 80

Twitter Users by Age

Twitter has near parity of its three key age groups: 18-24, 25-34 and 35-49.
Twitter has also seen its average age increase in the past few years, with the
35-49 age group becoming the largest in 2021.

Twitter Users by Age 2021 (%)

 81

Snapchat Users by Age

Snapchat has a large 13-17 age audience in comparison to all other social
media platforms. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, it has kept similar age
demographics to when it first launched.

Snapchat Users by Age 2021 (%)

 82

TikTok Users by Age

TikTok has seen its adult audience grow rapidly in the past two years. In 2017,
over 40% of Musical.ly’s userbase was under 18 and 90% was under 25.

TikTok Users by Age 2021 (%)

 83

Pinterest Users by Age

Pinterest has a large 25-34 age bracket, comprising of 41% of the userbase.
Demographics across the rest of the age brackets are almost even.

Pinterest Users by Age 2021 (%)

 84

BeReal Users by Age

BeReal users are almost split evenly between 16-25 year olds and 26-44 year
olds, with only 1.89% of users above the age of 45.

BeReal Users by Age 2021 (%)

 85

App Users by Gender

Instagram is the closest to gender parity, with a 49.2-50.8% split. Twitter has
the highest percentage male audience at 68.5%, while 77% of Pinterest users
are female.

App Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 86

Facebook Users by Gender

As the largest social media platform, it is somewhat surprising that Facebook

does not have closer gender parity. Facebook gender split has increased over
the past two years, it was at 46-54% in 2018.

Facebook Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 87

Instagram Users by Gender

Instagram has the closest parity of any of the seven apps referenced in the
study. It has maintained a close gender split in the past few years, although for
the first few years it had a higher percentage of female users.

Instagram Users by Gender 2021(%)

 88

WhatsApp Users by Gender

WhatsApp has a slight male majority, which may come from the large Indian
userbase, which is 60% male.

WhatsApp Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 89

YouTube Users by Gender

YouTube almost mirrors Facebook’s gender demographics, to be expected as

apps with hundreds of millions of users in developing countries tend to have a
slight male preponderance.

YouTube Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 90

LinkedIn Users by Gender

LinkedIn has the second highest percentage of male users, at 56.9%. This
figure has declined in recent years, from a high of 63% in 2018.

LinkedIn Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 91

Twitter Users by Gender

Twitter has the highest percentage of male users, at 68.5%. A separate study
by the University of Pennsylvania found that female accounts have half as
many followers as male.

Twitter Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 92

Snapchat Users by Gender

Snapchat is one of the few social apps with a majority of users being female. In
2021, that figure stood at 57.4%, which is down from previous years when it
was more than 60% female.

Snapchat Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 93

TikTok Users by Gender

In some countries, over 75% of TikTok users are female. Since 2019, the
percentage of users who are male has increased, as it has shifted from dancing
and lip-syncing to all forms of content.

TikTok Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 94

Pinterest Users by Gender

Pinterest has by far the highest percentage of female users out of all social
apps in this report. That percentage has remained stable, even as Pinterest has
added more users.

Pinterest Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 95

BeReal Users by Gender

BeReal has reached near parity in the US, but in the UK, Germany, and
Australia, it has a much larger female majority.

BeReal Users by Gender 2021 (%)

 96

Social App Benchmarks

In this section, we will compare engagement and advertising benchmarks.

Average Time Spent

Average time spent on social media has increased every year since 2012, but
failed to increase from 155 in 2021.

Average Minutes Spent Per Day on Social Media 2012 to 2021

 97

Average Hours Spent Per Month on Social Media 2012 to 2021

 98

Average Time Spent by Platform

TikTok has overtaken Facebook to become the social media platform with the
highest average time spent. Its algorithmic feed, based on the user's interests,
is considered the reasoning for this higher average time spent.

Average Minutes Spent Per Day on Social Media by Platform

 99

Average Time Spent by Country

Nigeria has the highest amount of social media usage, at 247 minutes a day,
followed by Philippines and Colombia.

Average Time Spent on Social Media by Country

 100

Engagement

Engagement across social platforms is obviously not a like-for-like, as YouTube

and TikTok are vastly different experiences to Twitter and LinkedIn.

Daily Engagement With App

Instagram has the highest daily engagement, with 39% of users engaging with
it once a day. Twitter is the worst of the bunch, with 18% opening the app once
a day.

Daily Engagement Rate on Social Apps 2021 (%)

 101

Engagement Rate by Following

TikTok has a higher engagement rate than Instagram or Twitter across every
account size, from 9.4% at less than 1,000 users to 5.3% on +100,000 users.

Engagement Rate by Following 1,000 to 100,000 users

 102

Engagement with Influencers by Platform

Influencers may be best suited for TikTok or YouTube, which have the highest
engagement. YouTube and Instagram are by far the best platforms for highly
engaged users.

Weekly Daily

TikTok 95 14

YouTube 95 47

Instagram 94 37

Snapchat 92 15

Pinterest 87 17

Twitch 83 8

Triller 75 2

Source: Takumi

Micro-Influencer Engagement Rate by Platform

Engagement on posts by micro-influencers, or those with less than 15,000

followers, is much higher on TikTok than YouTube and Instagram.

Instagram YouTube TikTok

Engagement Rate (%) 3.86 1.63 17.96

Source: Upfluencer
 103

Influencers Lead to Purchase by Platform

Engagement may be higher on TikTok, but follow through is not. Influencer

videos only saw a 4% purchase increase for partnered businesses, which is less
than the two main social video platforms, YouTube and Instagram.

Platform TikTok TV Ads YouTube Instagram Online Ads

Purchase (%) 4 21 16 11 8

Source: Takumi

Marketers Planning to Use the Platform

Platform TikTok YouTube Instagram Online Ads TV Ads

Plan to Use 35 58 55 43 29

Source: Takumi

Content Sharing Type by Platform

TikTok Instagram Facebook

Funny videos 48 42 36

Personal news 47 43 40

Memes 39 34 29

Coronavirus news 28 26 25

Influencer posts 24 16 13

Brand posts 21 14 11

Other news 21 21 19

Product recommendations 21 15 12

Source: GlobalWebIndex
 104

Advertising

Advertising is the lead generator of revenue for all social apps covered in this
report, even as some look to switch from that following the changes to
targeted advertising pushed by Apple.

Click-Through Rate

TikTok leads in CTR rate by a good margin, with AdWords and Twitter second
and third. Measurements below are averages. All values are subject to
fluctuation based on ad platform updates.

Popular Social App CTR Rate (%)

 105

Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)

TikTok currently has the highest CPM rate of all ad platforms, although like
CTR, it is difficult to find a precise rate as they are subject to fluctuation and
changes in the ad platform and advertising market.

Popular Social App Average CPM ($)

 106

Conclusion
The landscape for the next five years of social networking looks set to branch
more into the extremes of both personalization and authenticity. TikTok,
Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts are all pulling users into the short-form
video, personalized feed with a machine learning algorithm creating the
perfect page to endlessly scroll. In the other direction, we have BeReal, which
has no algorithm and is focused solely on interactions with friends.

At the center of this is Instagram, which on the one hand is responsible for
BeReal’s growth, as some users find the new Reels push to be inauthentic and
have switched to BeReal. On the other, it has seen tremendous growth with
Reels, especially in India, and TikTok’s rapid growth in e-commerce and
advertising signals this could be a good market for Instagram.

Authenticity is a hard thing to market to advertisers however, especially as

BeReal only has one moment of the day when people access the app (when
they take a daily photo), which limits the amount of time spent on the app
considerably. It will be interesting to see how BeReal commercializes the app.

The success and quick demise of Clubhouse and the integration of live audio
chats into Twitter and LinkedIn should also be a warning to developers of a
new social experience - the big players will copy you as soon as your app
becomes successful. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube have
short-form video services; Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have launched
BeReal clones.

That may be more difficult as we move into more costly realms of social
networking, such as the metaverse (which Meta Platforms is investing $10
billion in a year) and other hybrid-format experiences, such as augmented
reality. However, there is still plenty of space for apps that are aiming to create
new interactions, for instance, a new popular social app in the US is aimed at
 107

teenagers and gets them to “Gas” their friends, simply paying them
compliments. It recently reached number one on the Apple App Store.

Any questions or feedback please contact david@businessofapps.com