Industry report

How Much Time Do People Spend on Social Media

The internet plays a prominent role in our daily lives, from posting photographs on Instagram during food time or checking Facebook while on queue for public utility service. In this digital age, a vast majority of us use the internet for various online services. It helps to get the things done online rather than doing manually. You don’t need to physically visit a railway station or airlines office or public utility service for any of the essential services.

In any case, have you ever thought about what amount of time do you spend on social media networking?

 

What is social media?

 

Social Media is an internet-based electronic communication platform.  It helps people to communicate with each other, share photographs, videos, and also one of the potential business platforms.

 

With the help of the internet and computer, tablet, or cell phone, the users can get connected by using unique apps.  Each social media site will have specially designed apps, allowing the user to engage with their targeted audience. The material transmitted may include personal data, reports, recordings, and photographs.

Social Media started as a peer to peer interface, allowing people in the known circle communicate each other by the click of a mouse or phone tap. The feature later expanded its scope by enabling people to connect across a group of friends or people of a known circle with people of common interest or even unknown people.  The intensity of social media is the capacity to associate and impart data with anybody on Earth, or with numerous individuals simultaneously.

How much time do people spend on social media?

People exclusively use social media to stay connected with each other without territorial or geographical restrictions.  The number of users increases daily, and every second, 11 new people subscribe to any of the social media platforms.  Way back in 2017, about 2.5 billion people were using social media, which expect to cross 3 billion by 2021.  Which means by 2021, forty percent of the entire population will be using social media one way or the other.

 

 

The amount of time people engaging in social media and the number of people using social media shows steady growth. In 2012 people used to spent 90 minutes per day, and by 2018 it rose to 144 minutes, and in 2019 it shows a trend of 153 minutes per day.  The following graph will illustrate the growth rate.

As per the available estimates, an individual might be spending a total of 57,706 hours on social media between the age 10-72. It is roughly about 6.5 years. This projection relies on user patterns, which is a clear indication that in the coming years, people’s dependability on the social media platform for various activities will increase.

 

When we compare the average daily activities of an individual in a lifetime, people may spend more time on social media than any other everyday routine activities. Check the following graphs. It is interesting to note that an individual using social media networks spends almost equal time for watching TVs and other entertainments. Presently, complete-time invested internet or social media beats energy spent eating and drinking, mingling, and prepping.

Average Time Spent in a Lifetime

Every social media website function differently, and hence, the time spent on the platforms will also differ.

 

  • YouTube comes in first, devouring more than 40 minutes of an individual’s day, which is around 1 year and 10 months in a lifetime.
  • Facebook users spend an average of 35 minutes every day, totaling 1 year and 7 months in a lifetime.
  • Snapchat users spend 25 minutes every day on this platform.
  • However, Instagram comes next with 15 minutes spent every day.
  • At long last, users go through 1 minute on Twitter, making over 18 days of utilization in a lifetime.

Depending on where and how a video is watched it can have different outcomes. For example, almost every social media platform supports video based content, but not all of them will reap the same results for businesses. Here are some statistics to help you understand how video marketing performs on different social media networks:

How much time do people spend on different social media websites?

Facebook

People use this massive social media platform for networking. In 2019, 3.48 billion individuals were using social media, out of which, 2.41 billion of them are dynamic monthly active users on Facebook. Apart from networking, Facebook can use for sharing information, videos, pictures, and more and all these have made Facebook a gigantic social media website.

It doesn’t come as a shock, as 95.1% of all Facebook guests use cell phones for Facebook access. It has become a major interactive social media site to stay connected, providing personal updates, which reduced the dependability on telephone/cellphone. According to eMarketer research, US natives (matured 18+) spends 43 minutes on Facebook per day.

In 2018, the normal time spent on the portable Facebook application was around 58 minutes per day. Since November 2018, Android and iOS clients can check how much time they go through on the system with the ‘Your Time on Facebook’ application. You can discover the setting in the app it under the Settings and then the Privacy tab.

About 2,055 billion users’ access to Facebook through a cell phone or tablet and research on this subject shows that only 31.8% of individuals log into Facebook by using their PC or laptop. By checking ‘Your Time on Facebook’ let you know the exact time you spend on Facebook. 

YouTube

79% of all web clients possess a YouTube account, which makes it the second most used social media network. Moreover, it has the highest number of active users and enjoys 86% of the total internet users. People mainly visit the site for watching entertainment and information contents.

 

As per the available statistics, an average individual spends 1163 minutes every month on YouTube. It is equivalent to barely 40 minutes per day.  The 2018 statistics show that about 1.8 billion guests spend one hour per day watching video/informative video contents on YouTube.

 

YouTube also has introduced features to check to know how much time they spend on the platform every day.

WhatsApp

About 320 million active users, which comes about 60% of web users, utilize WhatsApp for social media and commercial activities daily.  On a daily basis, about 43 billion messages, calls, and contents transact on this social media platform, which comes about 28 minutes of average spending per day.  About 2 billion minutes’ calls transmit through WhatsApp. WhatsApp is the top messaging app of 128 nations.

 

How much time do we spend on WhatsApp? The figures are amazing. As per the available statistics, in 2016, the United States customer spent an average of 28.4 minutes per day on WhatsApp. As per the projections, the user base will grow beyond 25.6 million by 2022.

Messenger

72% of the social media users, utilize Messenger, for social media engagements, for sending texts, messages, and graphic contents. The average daily time of Messenger engagement is not available; however, it has estimated that American’s spend an average of 9.36 minutes daily on Messenger.

WeChat

It is similar to Messenger and WhatsApp, with 1.08 billion MAUs with multi interactive features. In the beginning, it has been using as a messaging application. It underwent a significant makeover allowing people to use for online shopping, commercial activities like making cab reservations, money transfer, etc.  WeChat is mainly using in China and Far Eastern countries, which is an alternative for Facebook.

Instagram

The dynamic photo and video sharing platform have 500 million daily active users, and on a daily average, an individual user spends 53 minutes on this social media.  People upload 95 million digital content and 250 million stories per day. 

Tumblr:

Founded in February 2007 by David Karp is a social media platform supporting microblogging. People can use it conveniently for sharing texts, videos, audios, pics, and much more. On a monthly average, more than 640 million subscribers use this social media for sharing microblogs, pics, and contents.  It is also effectively using for marketing.

Twitter

The microblogging site has 100 million daily active users, and each user spends an average of 1 minute per day. Around 82 million users visit Twitter via desktops, and the remaining is by mobile devices. As per the latest statistics, it has 330 million monthly active users. 6% of adolescents in the US name Twitter as their most utilized social media networking site.  About 75% of its users depend on the media for checking news and events updates.

Reddit

Reddit was established on June 23, 2005, by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman who were roommates at the University of Virginia. It is one of the popular social media platforms with more than 330 million monthly users allowing to use a pretty bundle of features. Users can create discussion forums and options to cast votes on the subject under discussion.  It is an entertainment and social news-oriented website where users can submit text posts and links. Reddit can also use as a marketing tool by placing your product in the subreddit section.  Apart from these, it has options to place advertisements and content ideas.

Snapchat

As per available estimates, Snapchat with 178 million daily active users, utilize 3 billion snaps per day.  The average usage of individual per day stands at 49.5 minutes. Majority of its users are youngsters of 18-34.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an excellent social media platform for individuals allowing associating with peers in different industries, establishments, and develop a personal brand. Presently it has 303 million MAUs, which gives a space for management teams to express their thoughts and improve their brand potentials.  The site has 24 language interactive options and also has the feature to share contents and send messages.  Previously it has been using as a job search site. Today it is one of the most useful sites for professionals, who want to get connected with counterparts in the same industry.

Viber

Viber works something similar like WhatsApp, allows you to make voice calls, send messages person to person, share stickers, photos, and videos.  The social media platform also offers business tools. The feature allows you to buy ads, place your products in the shopping catalog, and support to send personalized communications for better brand awareness. It enjoys more than 260 million visitors monthly.

Pinterest

With 291 million MAUs, Pinterest is an effective social media platform where users can publish their products for better marketing. Pinterest started its operations in September 2015, and people depend on the site for innovative products. Private ventures, primarily who target female audiences find it as a resourceful media because the majority of its users are ladies.  Branding is comparatively more effortless in the site, and it plays a pivot role in decision making. 

Telegram

Telegram is a secure massaging app offers person to person interaction and also useful to develop personalized customer support service.  Presently it has been using 200 million subscribers per month and plays a vital role in enhancing market share.  Subscribers can create chatbots for quick customer service and also it offers channel feature to transmit messages to reach unlimited customers.

Other popular social media platforms:

Some of the other popular social media platforms are WeChat, QQ, Ozone, Sina Weibo, Baidu Tieba, Line, etc.  These sites are also highly interactive, allowing one-to-one customer support and group interactions.  The volume of MAUs is vital in selecting a social media platform to beam your marketing efforts. So naturally, entrepreneur’s will go with a social media platform, that can offer broad coverage meeting their business interest.  

Different forms of social media:

 

Social Media may appear as an assortment of tech-empowered activities. These activities incorporate social gaming, informal communities, video sharing, business systems, photograph sharing, blogging, virtual universes, surveys, and many other significant things. Indeed, even governments and legislators use online networking to draw in with constituents and voters.

For people, web-based social networking will help them to stay connected with companions and distant family members. It virtually makes it possible to get connected with anybody who has a communication device. People can utilize different internet-based applications to discover individuals across the globe with similar interests, and exchange ideas, thoughts, and feelings. The individuals who take part in these exercises are a piece of a virtual social organization. 

For entrepreneurs, social media is an essential tool to augment business operations.  Business entities utilize social media to discover and connect with targeted audiences and promote deals through publications of contents and advertisements. Social media also helps to check shopping patterns and offers client profiling. It will help companies to target email campaigns in a personal tone.

The intensity of social networking is very much that by the end of 2021, there will be more than 33% of the earth’s whole population will be using social media. By 2022, an expected 33% of a billion social media users will be from India, and 750 million social media users will be from China alone. Since 2017, more than 81 percent of the United States population has been using social media facilities.  The pattern of social media growth is on the aggressive mode even in the underdeveloped world.

 

The most astounding pace of interpersonal social media engagements is in North America, where around 70 percent of the population has access to at least one social networking website. Eastern Asia is a fast-growing mobile phone market, holds the number one position in portable social media engagements and also personal computers similar to Northern Europe and America. Indeed, the main reason for the rapid growth of social media networking is the explosive growth of cell phone networks and the availability of inexpensive smartphones and tablets.

 

Social networking is consistently expanding its wings worldwide, and as of January 2019, the growth remained at 45 percent.  The figure may change rapidly since the underdeveloped nations are also making significant inroads into mobile phone connectivity along with developing countries and the availability of inexpensive handsets. Low-cost operations and service provider charges will also play a crucial role in the exponent growth of mobile-based social networking.

Time Spend On Social Media Infographic

 

 

Conclusion:

 

Social media networks offer a wide range of activities, letting people stay connected, exchanging views, sending and receiving messages, pics, videos, etc. Commercial establishments utilize social media for targeted marketing campaigns, developing brand awareness, and promotions.  It is also using as an entertainment media for watching movies and social entertainment activities.

 

Social media has evolved into a stage with immense potential of meeting all the essential requirements of individual needs to commercial requirements. Depending on the media, you will have the option to make voice calls, video live streaming, getting news updates, product and event updates at frequent intervals. As a result, people depend on social media and continue to use it frequently in a day. It is not just texting, making phone calls and commercials, but it is more than that and is the best way to engage with family and friends actively.

 

 

Source Links:

 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp

https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/05/popular-social-media-sites.html

https://www.statista.com/topics/1164/social-networks/

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic

https://mediakix.com/blog/how-much-time-is-spent-on-social-media-lifetime/

https://techjury.net/blog/time-spent-on-social-media/

Researched by Brian and SaaS Scout team
Researched by Brian and SaaS Scout team

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