According to Digital 2024 - the annual report on social media trends published by Meltwater and We are social, the number of social media users worldwide has surpassed 5 billion people.

Accordingly, there are a total of 5.04 billion active social network users, accounting for 62.3% of the world's population. The number of social network users increased by 266 million over the past year, with an annual growth rate of 5.6%.

The report also found that users spend an average of 2 hours and 23 minutes per day on social media platforms, using around 6.7 platforms per month.

Notably, the TikTok Android app is currently the platform with the highest average usage time per user. Specifically, TikTok Android users typically spend 34 hours per month on the platform, equivalent to more than 1 hour of use per day.

Coming in second place in terms of time spent is YouTube. On Android, the average user spends more than 28 hours per month on Google's video-sharing platform.

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Facebook is one of the most popular social networks in Vietnam. Photo: Trong Dat

In 2023, Instagram surpassed WhatsApp as the world's most popular social platform. According to the report, 16.5% of Internet users aged 16-64 consider Instagram their favorite platform. This result helped Instagram win over WhatsApp (16.1% favorite rate).

According to Digital 2024, internet users spend around 6 hours and 40 minutes online every day, up 3 minutes from the same period last year. In contrast, internet users spend just 17 minutes less per day watching TV content, down 8.2% from 2022.

Another notable metric is that digital ad spending increased by 10% year-over-year. In total, $720 million was spent on digital advertising in 2023.

Of this, spending on advertising on social media platforms is now at $207 billion, up 9.3%, while brand spending on influencer marketing in 2023 has also increased by 17% compared to the previous year.

Social media is a big part of how people connect with each other, and the popularity of TikTok has also changed the way people behave online, according to Nathan McDonald, co-founder and CEO of We Are Social.

Mr. Nathan McDonald said that each social media platform serves a different purpose, for example, Pinterest is often used for commerce, while Facebook is used for community connection purposes.

Therefore, for advertising companies, it is extremely important to understand the nuances of the platforms and have an approach that is appropriate to the culture of that platform.

Press agencies must be KOLs on social media platforms . There are many advantages over content creators, so press agencies must be KOLs on social media platforms.