Which Social Platform is Growing The Fastest? You'll be Surprised!

bySeanGreentre

3K followers

Updated 6 years ago

I was recently reading a great blog post, from the good people at Target Internet, about the recent growth of the foremost social media platforms. To say that I was a little surprised at the result would be an understatement. And for this reason, I wanted to share it with you all here at WA.

In Q1 of every year there is an abundance of new statistics around the usage, the demographics and overall growth of most social media platforms. These numbers are invaluable for us affiliate marketers, as we look to hone our marketing strategies. Time is a rare commodity for us marketers, so knowing which ones will work best for us can really help us target our messages to the right audiences on the right social platforms.

However, one of the biggest issues is the myriad of different statistics available - some of which is fairly contradictory. So with this wealth of varying data, how do we know which ones to believe?

Well, my chums at Target Internet have researched this in great detail and have managed to sort out the wheat from the chaff. In conclusion, they believe that the 'We Are Social' annual Global Digital report is one of the most accurate available. Researched in association with social giants Hootsuite, the latest 2018 report delivers a wealth of great information about how we all use social media. But the guys at Target Internet have taken this a step further and have compared the various social statistics of 2018 with those of 2017, to see if we can identify which of the key platforms are growing the fastest.

Needless to say, the results were very interesting indeed.

The results!

OK... so now to the really interesting stuff. The following log details growth gains and year-on-year percentage changes, based upon each platform's active monthly users - 2017 versus 2018.

Platform | 2017 (M) | 2018 (M) | Gains | % Change
Facebook | 1871 | 2167 | 296 | +15.82%
WhatsApp | 1000 | 1300 | 300 | +30%
Facebook Messenger | 1000 | 1300 | 300 | +30%
Wechat | 846 | 980 | 134 | +15.83%
Instagram | 600 | 800 | 200 | +33.33%
Tumblr* | 550 | 794 | 244 | +44.36%
Twitter | 317 | 330 | 13 | +4.10%
Sina Weibo | 297 | 376 | 79 | +26.59%
Pinterest | 150 | 200 | 50 | +33.33%
LinkedIn* | 106 | 260 | 154 | +145.28%
Vkontakte | 90 | 97 | 7 | +7.77%

Data supplied by We are social’s Digital in 2017 and Digital in 2018 reports

*Do not publish 'Monthly Active Users' data. Tumblr figures are monthly unique visitors Dec 2017 via Similarweb. LinkedIn data is from Fortune/Apptopia April 2017

So what can we learn from this?

So the highlights for me are as follows:

1. New user growth at Twitter has clearly slowed. Given the number of updates we have seen recently with Twitter, it will be interesting to see how this pans out in the future.
   
   
2. Unsurprisingly, Facebook remains a dominant force. However, whilst its overall growth is still pretty good, it's growth in its number of active users does seem to be slowing down.
   
   
3. In terms of active user numbers growth, Facebook is out in front, surpassed only by WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger - both of which are owned by Facebook!
   
   
4. Something we should all keep an eye on is the interesting growth of these messaging apps. Growth in these platforms is interesting and could ultimately enable us to reach new untapped users looking to engage with our communications.
   
   
5. Instagram enjoys a healthy 33.33% growth in active monthly users - another Facebook owned platform! Coincidence? I think not!
   
   
6. Pinterest also managed a 33.33% growth, though with much lower user base.
   
   
7. Tumblr's growth was the big one for me! Tumblr has never been the standout microblogging platform for me, yet it achieved a growth in excess of 44% - and with a healthy user base of almost 800 million active users! Who'd of thought? This really puts the traditionally more fashionable platforms of Twitter and Instagram in the shade... and one we should all pay more attention to going forwards. This may explain why Twitter have aired away from its more 'micro' blog environment with the introduction of threaded tweets and tweet maximum lengths of 280 characters. Needless to say that I will be re-evaluating Tumblr in my own social strategy.
   
   
8. By far the biggest growth goes to LinkedIn, with active user numbers of 145%+. Whilst the user number itself is relatively low compared to the other platforms ( growing from 106 Million active users in 2017 to 260 Million users in 2018) it's growth in the last year is quite phenomenal. Certainly another one to keep an eye on.

Now, many of you may have noticed the omission of Snapchat in the above figures. This is because the numbers in the two reports were shown as 'unofficial', and so these were not posted in the chart so as not to compare 'apples with pears'. There has also been a lot of inconsistency in reported user activity so it would be difficult to report on these with any degree of accuracy.

In conclusion

Overall, the news for all social platforms is good, with all posting a growth in monthly active users. Clearly, some are growing a lot faster than others. But one thing is for sure. All are continuing to grow, meaning that social media will remain a key element in our overall digital marketing strategy.

If you enjoyed this post or found it useful, please LIKE it below. Furthermore, feel free to leave any questions below and I'll get back to you.

Kindest regards,

Sean