• Dec 26, 2022

Facts About Social App Usage and Revenue for 2022

With major social media upheaval in the last quarter alone, now is a great time to gauge your particular engagement strategy with all of the major players. You have potential access to the almost five billion people, worldwide, who have social media accounts – 55% of the world’s population – who spend an average of 70 hours every month on their social media apps. While some of the big basics – like who are the primary moneymakers in the game – aren’t bound to change any time soon, some big shake-ups remind us that technology shifts can often happen suddenly – one reason a PR team could help you navigate these changes. Here are some helpful year-end stats for the usage and revenue of the major social media outlets.

Who Is Bringing in the Most?

Predictably, the top of the heap in terms of social media revenue are the two Meta Platforms properties – Facebook and Instagram – responsible for nearly $34 billion in revenue this year alone. YouTube comes third with nearly $9 billion, with LinkedIn Trailing at $4 billion. Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, and WhatsApp all fall somewhere between $2 billion and the sub-billions.

Who Has the Most Users?

Perhaps less obvious is where the user numbers lie in each social media app, with Facebook still at the top with 2.9 billion users, followed closely by YouTube at 2.6 million video watchers and uploaders. This correlation to yearly revenue is very likely due to YouTube’s growing restrictions and changes on content and monetization of the content. WhatsApp has 2.4 billion users, while Instagram has 2.3 Billion – another shocker, given its huge revenue potential. The other platforms fall below 2 billion users, with Twitter at the bottom with 230 million+ users.

How Much Time is Being Spent?

While social media use has remained relatively the same over the last couple of years – users averaging 150 minutes per day – likely due to the pandemic plateau, the increase in the last ten years is remarkable, with that amount nearly doubling what it was in 2012. Of all the major social media apps, Instagram has the greatest daily usage reported. Thirty-nine percent of users open Instagram at least once daily. The second is TikTok, with 29 percent engagement per day. This is likely due to both apps having not just the user base, but the most phone-friendly UIs among the apps.

What’s the Year-End Verdict?

Understandably, user numbers and revenue are not directly linked. The platforms generating the most revenue are those enabling monetization of all content and ads in an integrated way. These are, in some cases, relatively unintrusive, targeted ads, designed to almost be scrolled past until they spark some interest. They are eye-catching, themed, and active ads, for the most part. The more time spent on an app is likely to generate more revenue, based on the built-in model. Subscription and schedule-based systems, like YouTube, are bound to fall behind a little because they are time-intensive rather than scroll-enabling.