According to the DataReportal report released in October 2024, which reviews the global web, the number of unique internet users worldwide has reached 5.52 billion people, marking a 2.8% increase compared to the previous year, reports ranking.kz.
Out of these, 5.22 billion individuals use social media. The number of unique social media users increased by 5.2% over the year, with their share of all internet users rising from 92.4% to 94.6%, and from the total population—from 61.5% to 63.8%.
Facebook leads with the highest number of users: 3.07 billion people. Following are YouTube (2.53 billion people), Instagram (2 billion people), and WhatsApp (2 billion people). The top 10 most popular social networks globally also includes China's TikTok (1.69 billion people), WeChat (1.37 billion people), and Douyin (755 million people). Telegram (950 million people), Facebook Messenger (937 million people), and Snapchat (850 million people) also made the list.
On average, each user spends 6 hours and 36 minutes online daily, of which 3 hours and 45 minutes is through mobile phones, and 2 hours and 51 minutes is via laptops, computers, or tablets. More than a third of the time spent online is devoted to social media: 2 hours and 19 minutes. It is noteworthy that the time spent on social media is decreasing year by year; in 2023, it was 2 hours and 24 minutes, and in 2022, it was 2 hours and 28 minutes.
In terms of traffic, social networks are second only to chats and messengers, which are used by 94.4% of all internet users. Among age groups, the most popular type of visited websites and used applications for internet users aged 16 to 24 and 25 to 34 years are social networks: 97.2% and 96.9%, respectively. Chats and messengers take second place, while search engines rank third.
Among internet users aged 35 to 64, social networks rank second after chats and messengers, while for users over 65, neither social networks nor chats and messengers are in the top three most frequently visited website types and used applications. For this age group, search engines (84.8%) and email (83.9%) are the most popular.
Regionally, 3 out of 10 unique social media users globally reside in East Asia. This is followed by other Asian regions—South Asia and Southeast Asia, accounting for 16.4% and 10.7% of all unique social media users worldwide, respectively.
Central Asia has only 0.7% of unique social media users, the same as Australia and Oceania. The fewest unique social media users are found in Southern and Central Africa, as well as the Caribbean, each accounting for 0.5% in their respective regions.
It is worth noting that in Central Asia, only 35.9% of the region's total population are social media users, and just 46.3% of internet users. In comparison, in Northern Europe, 78.8% of residents over 16 use social media, while in East Asia, it is 97.2% of all internet users in the region. Only Central Africa has fewer social media users than Central Asia: 9.5% of the total population and 30% of internet users.
In terms of gender, there are more male social media users than female: 53.7% compared to 46.3%.
When it comes to the average time spent daily on social media, Kenya leads with 3 hours and 56 minutes—69.8% more than the global average. Brazil and South Africa follow with 3 hours and 38 minutes and 3 hours and 37 minutes, respectively. The top 10 countries where citizens spend the most time on social media mainly include countries from South America, Africa, and South Asia: Philippines (3 hours and 33 minutes), Chile (3 hours and 26 minutes), Colombia (3 hours and 18 minutes), Mexico (3 hours and 15 minutes), Nigeria (3 hours and 15 minutes), Indonesia (3 hours and 8 minutes), and Argentina (3 hours and 7 minutes).
It should also be noted that women spend more time on social media than men. Among users aged 16 to 24, women spend an average of 2 hours and 59 minutes daily on social media, while men spend 2 hours and 38 minutes. A similar pattern is observed across all age groups.
Meanwhile, according to Global Stats, in Kazakhstan, the most popular social network accessed via mobile phones as of November this year was Pinterest: 25.16%, down from 29.21% the previous year. Following are Twitter (18.71%), Facebook (16.05%), and Instagram (12.82%).
We also do not know who these big Pinterest fans are; we just present the data. However, it is important to note that Global Stats determines popularity based on the number of clicks, transitions, and entries into social networks, without considering the time spent on them. That is, one transition to YouTube, even if the time spent watching content was tens of minutes or hours, is less popular than numerous clicks on Pinterest or Twitter, which do not exceed a total of 10 minutes spent.