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It’s hard to keep track of today’s major social media networks, especially when a new one seems to become the next big thing every quarter. To help you navigate the space, we’ve put together this list of 9 major social networks, summarized in numbers.
YouTube:
YouTube is a video sharing service with over one billion users across the world, generating billions of views on a daily basis. Reaching more 18-49 year-olds than any U.S. cable network, YouTube is the definitive video content channel of choice for the online community. While the number of users earning six figures per year on YouTube is up by 50%, the rise of ad-blocking services leads many celebrity YouTubers to look to brand sponsorships as a primary source of revenue.
Snapchat:
Captioned photos and videos sent from the mobile app disappear within 10 seconds, making Snapchat ephemeral, engaging, and intimate. The platform has over 100 million daily active users, 65 million of which produce new content on a daily basis. Snapchat’s promise of spontaneous and authentic communication offers a special appeal to college students, 77% of which use Snapchat on a daily basis.
Instagram:
Instagram is an image-based social network that lets users intuitively enhance their photos with a variety of artistic touches. The platform’s casual simplicity and appealing visual filters make it a smash hit among millennials: 90% of Instagram’s 400 million monthly active users are younger than 35, and 49% of adult users access Instagram on a daily basis.
Pinterest:
Pinterest is a visual bookmarking site that lets users share interests by posting images and videos to virtual “pin boards” (a pinboard might center around food photos or hiking videos). Catering to the universal appeal of visuals, Pinterest has 100 million users, over 66% of which are under the age of 40. It’s also worth noting that 85% of Pinterest’s user base is female.
Twitter:
Twitter is a microblogging platform that lets users post messages in the form of short, 140-character “tweets.” The platform’s brief nature and intuitive interface make it highly appealing to millennials short on time and attention spans. 29% of people age 15-34 use Twitter. The 316 million active monthly users send an average of 500 million tweets each day.
Facebook:
With over 950 million daily active users, Facebook is the social media behemoth. Another 500 million users are active monthly, spending an average of 20+ minutes per day on the platform. As the world’s largest social network, Facebook sees its platform used not only by 91% of millennials age 15-34 but also by 45% of internet users age 65 and older. August 24th marked the first day where over 1 billion users were logged into Facebook at the same time.
Periscope:
You can go live online at any time with Periscope, a live streaming mobile video app. Periscope broadcasts integrate both social sharing tools and real-time feedback, merging spontaneity with interactivity. Periscope’s 2 million daily users stream 350,000 hours of live video every day of the week.
49% of these 2 million users are in the 25-34 age group, while another 32% are in the 16-24 age group.
Twitch:
Gamers can broadcast live gameplay online through Twitch, a video streaming platform. In 2014 Twitch was responsible for over 43% of all live video-streaming traffic online. Accounting for 1.8% of peak internet traffic with over 1.8 million unique visitors each day. Twitch is the go-to platform for millennial gamers looking to check out expert play and to improve their skills.
76% of Twitch’s users are in the 18-49 age group.
58% of Twitch users spend nearly 3 hours a day watching videos on the platform.
musical.ly:
musical.ly is a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short music videos. Although it peaked sometime in the last 2 years, millions of people still use musical.ly as an outlet to express themselves through song. You can find an engaged community of people singing, dancing, comedy, and lip-syncing. Some brands have even started to get into the mix.
What do other major social networks you think should be on this list? Let us know in the comments section below.
