Top 10 Social Media Platforms - The World's Most Popular Social Network

Like it or not, social media plays a large and growing role in the daily lives of modern people. Millions of people share, like, chat, view, post and make friends through different social media platforms daily. But not all social media platforms are equally popular and used. The following ranking shows you the currently most popular social media platforms in the world, based on active users.

10 most popular social media platforms in the world

1. Facebook ~ 2.5 billion users
2. YouTube ~ 2.0 billion users
3. WeChat ~ 1.2 billion users
4. Instagram ~ 1.1 billion users
5. TikTok ~ 810 million users
6. QZone ~ 530 million users
7. Tumblr ~ 490 million users
8. Reddit ~ 430 million users
9. Sina Weibo ~ 420 million users
10. Twitter ~ 340 million users

10 most popular social media platforms in the world

1. Facebook

~2.5 billion users

Released year: 2004

Owned by: Facebook, Inc.

With approximately 2.5 billion users worldwide, Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, a student at Harvard University. Zuckerberg, along with his roommates at Harvard, first intended to create a photo-sharing platform specifically for Harvard students. They later also extended membership to students from other Ivy League schools. In 2006, Facebook then became free for everyone and quickly became popular everywhere in the world. Today, about a third of the world's population has a Facebook account.

2. YouTube

~2.0 billion users

Released in: 2005

Owned by: Alphabet, Inc.

YouTube is primarily and primarily a video sharing platform. However, the platform has evolved into a social media and community platform over the years. 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. YouTube today is still owned by Google (more precisely Alphabet, the parent company behind Google) and remains the largest video-sharing site on the internet.

3. WeChat

~1.2 billion users

Released in: 2011

Owned by: Tencent Ltd

If you don't live in China, chances are you haven't heard of WeChat. But the Chinese platform is actually the world's third largest social media platform. Founded and owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent, WeChat now has around 1.2 billion users. About 90% of them live in China. There, WeChat is more than just a social media platform. It has become a super app and an "app for everything". Chinese users use WeChat to share photos and videos, communicate, play games, and even make electronic payments. WeChat is less popular outside, mainly due to the strict censorship on the platform and its privacy issues (the Chinese government uses the platform for its mass surveillance). ).

4. Instagram

~1.1 billion users

Released in: 2010

Owned by: Facebook, Inc.

Instagram was developed and launched in 2010 by Stanford University students Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. The app was originally a photo-sharing platform that quickly gained popularity. In its first year of existence, Instagram had 10 million users on its platform. In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for exactly 1 billion USD. The popularity of the platform has grown even faster since then. Today, Instagram has around 1.1 billion active users globally. Today, it's more than just a photo or video sharing platform, as an entire lifestyle has evolved around social media platforms.

5. TikTok

~810 million users

Released in: 2016

Owned by: ByteDance Ltd.

Launched only in 2016, TikTok has grown like no other social media platform before. TikTok is developed by Chinese company ByteDance based in Beijing. It is a video sharing platform where users can easily create and share short videos of themselves lip-syncing, delivering a message or other content of a humorous or entertaining nature. It was launched in 2016, initially only for Chinese users. Only after merging with the similar platform Musical.ly did the platform become open to users from all over the world.

6. QZone

~ 530 million users

Released in: 2005

Owned by: Tencent Ltd.

Prior to WeChat, Tencent first developed QZone in 2005. The platform started out as a blog for Chinese users, but quickly evolved into a popular social media platform. Since the launch of WeChat, QZone has somewhat lost its popularity among Chinese users. But it's still pretty popular as a built-in feature for users of QQ, China's most popular instant messaging app, which of course, Tencent also owns.

7. Tumblr

~490 million users

Released in: 2007

Owned by: Automattic, Inc.

Tumblr is a blogging social networking platform. Every user who signs up on Tumblr gets a small blog space on the platform on which users can create and share all kinds of content: Comments, images or videos. Users also follow each other and can comment on each other's posts, as is normal for a social networking site. Tumblr was launched in 2007. In 2019, Tumblr was sold to Automattic, the company behind the world's most popular Content Management System - WordPress.

8. Reddit

~430 million users

Released year: 2005

Owned by: A dvance Publications, In c.

Reddit is a social media platform and in many ways a unique platform. Reddit allows users to share images, videos, and news on the platform. Unlike other social media platforms, the photos are usually not from the users themselves but from all over the internet. It is therefore a news aggregator as well as a web content rating and discussion platform. The platform is also known for its regular Q&A sessions with celebrities of different types. Reddit was launched in 2005. Since 2011, it is owned by Advance Publications, a media company based in New York City.

9. Sina Weibo

~ 420 million users

Released in: 2009

Owned by: S ina Corporation

Sina Weibo is sometimes referred to as the "Twitter of China". Like Twitter, Sina Weibo is a microblogging platform and has a similar platform style, but it is actually larger than Twitter despite actually operating only on the Chinese market. Sina Weibo was launched in 2009 by Taiwanese-American actor, rapper and businessman Pan Weibo. It was sold to China's Sina Group.

10. Twitter

~ 340 million users

Released in: 2006

Owned by: T witter, Inc.

Twitter was launched in 2006 and is often considered the first microblogging site on the Internet. The social media platform allows users to share short messages as well as images and videos. Twitter is also known as the social media platform preferred by politicians, world leaders and celebrities.