With such a profound effect on how we communicate and do business it is increasingly important that we pay attention to what is happening in the social media industry. With this in mind amaSocial has compiled a list of the most relevant social media facts, figures, projects and acquisitions from the past year. These facts and figures have been drawn from Growing Social Media, www.jeffbullas.com, Inbound Marketing Stategy and MaxExposure! Social Media.

Facebook

Facebook is still the dominant leader in the social media space. Even though growth has leveled off in many developed markets, Facebook is still making great strides in secondary markets.

In addition to this Facebook has sought to diversify itself with high profile acquisitions such as Oculus VR, Instagram and WhatsApp. Along with projects like the Facebook Connectivity Lab, experiments with UAV’s and investing in various augmented reality systems and technologies. These acquisitions diversify the Facebook brand and increase the possibilities for the social network to grow into new sectors.

Facebook is astoundingly big and that’s why they are able to make these big moves.

  • There are now nearly 1.4 billion Facebook users;
  • 486 183 users a minute access Facebook from their mobile devices;
  • 47% of all Internet users are on Facebook;
  • Facebook users share 1.3 million pieces of content every minute;
  • 4.5 billion Likes are generated daily;
  • Nearly 75% of Facebook’s revenue now comes from mobile advertising; and
  • Direct uploads of user videos to Facebook now exceeds YouTube


Twitter

Twitter may have started out as an idea for an SMS-based social network, but it quickly surpassed this. While 2015 has seen a slowdown in Twitter’s growth there is no denying its pervasive impact. Twitter has become its users’ first resource for breaking news and consumer interactions, with the occasional spot of celebrity stalking.

Twitter has also sought to diversify and maintain its growth with high profile acquisitions, such as Periscope, Gnip, and Vine.

  • Twitter has 288 million active users at last count;
  • 88% of Twitter users are on mobile; and
  • 500 million tweets are sent per day.

Google+

Google+ is Google’s latest and most successful attempt to capture part of the social media market. While Google may have been a little late to join the game they are still seeing success especially in the B2B market. Google+ lends itself well to the integration of businesses concerns with Google’s range of additional services and features.
  • Google+ cost over half a billion to design and develop;
  • 363 million users;
  • The +1 button is served 5 billion times per day; and
  • 70% of brands now have a presence on Google+.

Instagram

The photo editing and sharing network is now owned by Facebook. Facebook was quick to acquire Instagram when they foresaw the intersection of social media and mobile in 2012. They have mostly been proven right with the rise of mobile first apps like Vine, Snapchat, Periscope and a plethora of other social apps.

  • Instagram has 300 million users;
  • 70 million photos and videos are uploaded daily; and
  • 53% of internet users aged 18-29 use Instagram.

Pinterest

Pinterest is responsible for the creation the digital pinboard which led directly to aspirational digital scrapbooking. Pinterest is still predominantly female centric and a wholly visual affair.

  • 80% of Internet users on Pinterest are female
  • 70 million users are on Pinterest
  • 88% have purchased a product they pinned

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the dominant player when it comes to the professional social networking segment. What you might not know is that it is also one of the oldest platforms, having started in 2002.

  • LinkedIn has 347 million registered members;
  • 70 million photos and videos are sent daily;
  • Total revenue at the end of 2014 was $643 million, a growth rate of 44%;
  • One in three professionals are on LinkedIn; and
  • There are over 39 million students and recent college graduates on LinkedIn.

YouTube

YouTube was created in February 2005, launched in November 2005 and acquired by Google in November 2006 for $1.65-billion. Today, YouTube remains the foremost video sharing website.

  • Over 4 billion videos are viewed a day;
  • Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month;
  • Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube; and
  • 300 hours of new video are uploaded to the site every minute.

The rest of the social media ecosystem

While the networks above may seem to dominate the social media ecosystem there are a few less obvious additional networks to keep in mind.

  • WhatsApp, the Facebook owned instant messaging app, now has 800 million active users;
  • There are 645 million users on Qzone, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook;
  • LINE, the Japanese instant communication application has reached 600 million users;
  • Facebook messenger, the instant messaging solution from Facebook, now has 600 million users;
  • Wechat, Tencent’s instant text and voice messenger, now has 438 million users, with 70 million users based outside China;
  • Viber, the instant messaging and VoIP app, has over 200 million users;
  • Snapchat has 100 million monthly users, with a $20-billion valuation;
  • Russia’s VK has 100 million users; and
  •  Social media advertising revenue is estimated to reach $8.4-billion in 2015

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