How much time do people spend on social media nowadays?

Social media has become a great part of our lives. According to Hootsuite, there are almost 4.2 billion users on the social network by the beginning of 2021. This is 13% more than the previous year. 

The average person spends 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media every day. The predictions are that those numbers will continue to grow.

If you are looking to increase your social media audience and engagement, Catchfull will be your partner! With the right popups at the right time, you will expand the cluster of social media users who follow your page and, therefore, awareness of your product. 

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Statistics from several social media platforms

Below you can find some statistics from the past few years drawing a map of a user’s day on social media:

• The average user spends 2 hours and 25 minutes on social media sites per day in 2020
• Half of the time people spend on their smartphones is in social media apps
• Users spend approximately 40 minutes a day on Facebook (excluding Messenger)
• YouTube has the attention of users for 11 minutes a day
• TikTok continues to enlarge its auditory leading to users spending an average of 45 minutes daily on the platform
• Facebook Messenger is growing rapidly expecting 138 million users from the US alone by 2022
• Instagram takes approximately 28 minutes daily of its users time
• Users browse ideas for 14.2 minutes every day from Pinterest
• The average user checks their WhatsApp between 23 and 25 times a day
• People spend around 1 minute of their day on Twitter
• Adults spend 17 minutes monthly on LinkedIn

The world is changing at a really fast pace and those statistics will follow. There is no surprise in the fact that in the past years the social media usage drastically grew. The average time spent on social media in 2012 was 1 hour instead of today’s 2 hours and 25 minutes.

Also, the COVID-19 pandemic has a great impact on people’s online habits. This shows mainly in the usage of messenger apps. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp are continuing to grow and host respectively 72% and 66% of internet users. 

Of course, the usage and the time spent on social media platforms and messengers depends on the region. Many strictly local platforms are popular in certain countries like Line, Viber, Kik, Skype, Kakao etc.

The 5 most used social networks by January 2021

1. Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg’s creation is still the main social network today with 2.7 billion active users. 

In 2018 users spent around 58 minutes on Facebook. In 2021 we notice a little drop in these numbers due to other social media platforms rising and fighting for people’s attention. 

There is no surprise that 95.1% of Facebook users are using the app via mobile device. 

2. YouTube

YouTube holds the strong second place in the “most used social network” race with 2.29 billion active users. 79% of all internet users have a YouTube account (Facebook is still the king with 85%). 

However, the platform has the most active monthly users – 86% of the internet population. A big part of the platform’s features is accessible even without a profile.

The time spent on YouTube varies from country to country and depends on the age of the target audience. The average time for January 2021 is 11 minutes, but for some regions and audiences (mostly aged between 3 and 16) it can reach 3 hours daily.

Mobile devices are preferred by 70% of all YouTube viewers.

3. WhatsApp

The messenger apps weren’t considered “real social media platforms” until recently. Nowadays, they are in the lead of the race with WatsApp having 2.0 billion active users. This accounts for 60% of the active internet users. 

In 2019 WhatsApp was ranked the top messaging app in 180 countries. Its main competitor is Facebook Messanger which is slightly running behind. It is no secret that both apps are owned by Facebook making this competition a little pointless.

4. Facebook Messenger

This messenger app has 1.3 billion active users. It is expected to grow to 2.4 billion by the end of 2021, probably surpassing WhatsApp. 

With messenger apps, your friends and loved ones are a few taps away. With the COVID-19 pandemic and families living on 2 or 3 different continents, this is indeed the fastest way of communication. The numbers of active monthly users are expected to drastically grow in the next few years.

5. Instagram

Instagram users reached 1.3 billion in January 2021 putting the network amongst the top 5 social media platforms. 

After the launch of the feature “Story” in 2016 Instagram has increased its usage and more importantly – engagement. As of 2018, there were 500 million stories posted daily. And one-third of the most viewed ones are from businesses. The average post contains 10-11 hashtags.

What does this data mean for marketers?

Any data is useless if it is not put to good use. The more time the users are spending on social media comes with great opportunities for the business. 

People are becoming more aware of the ads they see daily and many of them find them useful. Around 20 billion messages are exchanged between people and brands on Messenger. The messages delivered through this platform have a 70% better open rate than the ones that come by email.

Nowadays users find their “love brands” and are interested in what they have to say. More than half of the Instagram population follow at least one business. 

It is important for businesses to know the statistics for different social media platforms for their region. Thus they will know how and when to approach their target audience. You can subscribe for Catchfull today and increase your social media audience with catchy popups, messages and website banners.