1. Facebook
Approximately 2.9 billion users
Launched: 2004
所有者：Meta Platforms, Inc.
With around 2.9 billion users worldwide, Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform in the world. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard University at the time. Zuckerberg and his roommate at Harvard originally intended to create a photo-sharing platform created specifically for Harvard students. Later they also expanded their membership to students from other Ivy League schools. In 2006, Facebook was free for everyone and quickly took the world by storm. Today, about 1/3 of the world's population has a Facebook account.
2.YouTube
Approximately 2.6 billion users
Launched: 2005
Owner: Alphabet, Inc.
YouTube started out primarily as a video-sharing platform. However, over the years, the platform has grown into a social media platform and community and currently has around 2.6 billion active users. YouTube was founded in 2005 by three former PayPal employees. The site quickly became a success, and just a year later, in 2006, it was acquired by Google for about $1.7 billion. Today, YouTube is still owned by Google (more precisely, Alphabet, the parent company behind Google) and remains by far the largest video-sharing site on the internet.
3.Instagram
About 1.5 billion users
Launched: 2010
所有者： Meta Platforms, Inc.
Instagram was developed and launched in 2010 by Stanford University students Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The app started as a photo-sharing platform and quickly gained popularity. In its first year, Instagram already had 10 million users on its platform. In 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion. Since then, the platform's popularity has grown even faster. Today, Instagram has about 1.5 billion active registered users worldwide. Nowadays, it is more than just a photo-sharing or video-sharing platform, and the whole lifestyle has evolved around this social media platform.
4. WeChat
Approximately 1.3 billion users
Launched: 2011
Owner: Tencent Limited
Founded and owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, WeChat currently has about 1.3 billion active users. About 90% of them live in China. WeChat is not just a social media platform, it has become a super app and a "jack-of-all-trades". Users use WeChat to share pictures and videos, communicate, play games, and even make electronic payments.
5. Tik Tok
Approximately 1 billion users
Launched: 2016
Owner: ByteDance Limited
TikTok was only launched in 2016 and has grown faster than ever before, with over 1 billion users today. TikTok was developed by ByteDance, a Chinese company based in Beijing. It is a video-sharing platform where users can easily create and share short videos of lip-syncing, posting messages, or other comedic or other entertaining content. Initially, TikTok was only aimed at Chinese users. Only after merging with a similar platform Musical.ly will the platform be available to users around the world.
6. Kuaishou
About 580 million users
Launched: 2011
Affiliation: Beijing Kuaishou Technology Co., Ltd
Kuaishou is known as the "original TikTok" because it invented the concept of short videos that TikTok follows and is based on. For a long time, Kuaishou failed to make a huge impact outside of China, but that has changed in recent years. Although it still doesn't have as much global reach as TikTok, Kuaishou is now also among the most popular social media platforms in the world.
7. Sina Weibo
About 570 million users
Launched: 2009
Company: Sina Company
Sina Weibo is sometimes referred to as "China Twitter." Like Twitter, Sina Weibo is also a microblogging platform that is similar in layout and style. But even though it's actually only active in the Chinese market, it now has more active users than its U.S. counterparts. Sina Weibo was founded in 2009 by American-born Taiwanese American actor, rapper, and entrepreneur Weibo Pan. It has since been sold to the Chinese company Sina.
8. Snapshots
About 560 million users
Launched: 2011
Owner: Snap Inc.
Snapchat combines the capabilities of a typical social media platform with those of an instant messaging app. It was launched in 2011 and is also known as the inventor of the "Stories" feature, which allows users to post short clips of their lives or other things. Other social media platforms, such as Instagram, have also copied it and applied it to their own platforms. Despite slowing user growth in recent years, Snapchat remains one of the most popular social media platforms.
9.Pinterest
About 450 million users
Launched: 2009
Owner: Pinterest, Inc.
Pinterest is a visual factor for a social media platform. The platform was launched in 2009 and remains unique among the most popular social media platforms. It lacks some of the characteristics of most other social media platforms, and instead, it focuses almost entirely on the image and video sharing aspects of social media.
10. Twitter
Approximately 440 million users
Launched: 2006
Owner: Twitter Inc
Twitter was launched in 2006 and is often considered the first microblogging site on the internet. This social media platform allows users to share text messages as well as images and videos. Twitter is also considered the preferred social media platform used by politicians, world leaders, and celebrities around the world. This makes it possible for even people who are not active on the platform to view its content frequently.
The 10 most popular social media platforms in 2022
(As of April 2022)
| Top 10 Most Popular Social Media Platforms: |
| 1.FACEBOOK 2.9 billion users |
| 2. YOUTUBE 2.6 billion users |
| 3.INSTAGRAM 1.5 billion users |
| 4. WeChat 1.3 billion users |
| 5. TikTok 1 billion users |
| 6. Kuaishou 580 million users |
| 7. Sina Weibo 570 million users |
| 8. SNAPCHAT 560 million users |
| 9.PINTEREST 450 million users |
| 10. Twitter 440 million users |