GlobalWebIndex’s latest figures show how the world’s major social networks have been faring in 2015 – with Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram emerging as the big winners in terms of growth rates. However, teens still remain the biggest problem for Facebook, reports WeAreSocial.
GWI’s new social report for Q1 2015 is a wave of research among 47,622 online adults. Commenting on the sample sizes, GWI states that each year, it interviews 200,000 internet users across 33 markets – making it the largest ongoing study in the digital consumer instigated to date. Research is conducted in quarterly waves, each of which has a global sample size of 45,000 – 50,000 internet users.
“Typically, we interview between 3,000 and 8,000 people per year per market, with larger sample sizes in key countries such as the UK and the US (30,000 each). Data is collected in the last six weeks of every quarter, ensuring it is as up-to-date as possible. In this particular report, we draw primarily on our Q1 2015 wave of research among 47,622 adults.”
Listed below are the major highlights on the study by GWI:
1. Pinterest and Tumblr (+95%) the biggest climbers in the social networking space last year
While Instagram and LinkedIn showed positive growth, Ello failed to make an impact. In the fastest growing messaging apps category LINE (+57%), Facebook Messenger (+53%) and Snapchat (+45%) were leading.
2. Facebook is the only major network to have seen a drop in active usage during the last year
Facebook still has the most members (82%) and active users (42%), but is the only major network to have seen a drop in active usage during the last year (-9%). And, on a monthly basis, more people are visiting YouTube (81%) than Facebook (73%).
However, over 50% of Facebook’s active users are engaging with the site more than once a day – far higher than the equivalent figure on any other network. What’s more, 26% of US/UK internet users are interested in Facebook At Work, with the figure peaking at 49% among LinkedIn users.
3. YouTube followed by Instagram are the coolest platforms for teens
Facebook still has a problem among teens (16-19). While 37% of all adults name Facebook as the “coolest” network, just 14% of teens agree. In fact, among this much-coveted and trend-setting audience, it’s YouTube that comes top.
Interestingly Facebook acquired Instagram is the second “coolest” network for teens. Tumblr also performs much better among teens than it does among the general online population.
4. With the rising importance of mobile internet, people spending time on mobile web has jumped from 1.24 hours in 2012 to 1.99 hours in 2015
Social networking now accounts for more than a quarter (28%) of the time we spend on the internet each day. Mobile is driving the time spent. Besides in fast-growth markets, comparatively young, urban and affluent internet users are at the forefront of this trend, whereas the lowest amounts of time are being devoted to networks in a number of mature markets (with Japan, South Korea and Germany posting the shortest times of all).
5. Across all of the social and messaging apps, Snapchat has a strong demand among teens
Across all of the social and messaging apps tracked by GWI, it is for Snapchat where we see 16-19s over-indexing the most strongly. They are in fact about 3.5x as likely to be using Snapchat as the average internet user.
More than 40% are now Snapchatting in Ireland, Sweden, Canada, Belgium and the UK. What’s more, Snapchat is more popular than either Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp among American teens.
