It is no secret that social networks are visited by millions of Internet users every day. They communicate with each other, download, view videos, pictures, photos, etc. The lion's share of activity on the World Wide Web falls on these sites called social networks. But which one is the most popular and visited? Below is a list of the ten most popular social networks. networks in the world.
Vine
Vine is a service and mobile application that allows you to create and publish short videos no more than 6 seconds long. The service was founded in June 2012 by Dom Hofmann, Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll. However, before its official launch, Vine was acquired by Twitter, Inc. for $30 million. Vine debuted as a free app on January 24, 2013 and was initially only available for iOS devices. However, it later became available for Android and Windows Phone. On April 9, 2013, the application became the most downloaded free application in App Store. At the end of June, it already had 13 million users, and about 1 million new videos began appearing on the service every day. Vine has about 42,000,000 visitors every month.
Flickr
In ninth place in the ranking of the most popular social networks. networks there is Flickr - a site for posting photos and videos, as well as viewing, discussing, rating and archiving them. Allows you to communicate and create thematic groups. The service was launched on February 10, 2004, and in March 2005 it was bought by the American company Yahoo! As of March 2013, Flickr had 87 million registered users and more than 3.5 million new images uploaded per day.
In contact with
VKontakte is a social network based in St. Petersburg and owned by Mail.Ru Group. The project was launched on October 10, 2006. The site is available in several languages, but it is especially popular among the Russian-speaking audience. Like other social networks, VKontakte allows its users to exchange messages, images, audio, video, create groups, public pages and events, and also play Flash games using a browser. As of January 2015, the site's audience is about 71 million people per day.
Instagram - free application for sharing photos and short videos with the ability to distribute them through its service to other social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger and launched in October 2010 as a free mobile application. The service quickly gained popularity. As of April 2012 it numbered 100 million active users worldwide, and as of December 2014 - 300 million. In April 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for approximately $1 billion.
Tumblr
Sixth place in the list of most popular social networks world is occupied by Tumblr - a microblogging service that allows users to publish text messages, images, videos, links and audio recordings on their tumblr. The site was founded in 2007 by David Karp. May 18, 2013 Yahoo! acquired the service for $1.1 billion. As of 2015, about 220 million blogs are registered on Tumblr.
Google+
Google+ is a social network developed and owned by Google Inc. The service was launched on June 28, 2011. And two weeks after its launch on July 14, 2011, Google announced that social Google network+ has more than 10 million users. As of September 17, 2012, the site’s audience is 400 million users, and the active monthly audience has reached 135 million people.
LinkedIn is a social network designed for finding and establishing business contacts. It was founded in December 2002 by Reed Hoffman and launched on May 5, 2003. The site is available in 24 languages and has over 380 million registered users representing 150 different business sectors from 200 countries. About half of the users are residents of the United States, 25 million are from Europe.
Third place in the list of the ten most popular social networks in the world is occupied by Pinterest - social. network, photo hosting, allowing users to add and share images. The site was founded by Ben Silberman, Paul Sayer and Evan Sharp in March 2010. As of February 2013, Pinterest has 48.7 million users worldwide.
Twitter - social a network and microblock service that allows users to create and exchange public short messages of up to 140 characters. Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams, Biz Stone and launched in July 2006. The service quickly gained popularity around the world, with more than 100 million users posting approximately 340 million tweets per day in 2012. As of May 2015, Twitter has more than 500 million registered users, of which more than 302 million are active. As of 2012, the company employs more than 900 employees.
Facebook is the largest and most popular social network in the world and is available in more than 70 languages. Owned by Facebook, Inc., headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, USA. The site was launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard University roommates and classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes. As of July 2014, Facebook's audience amounted to 1.32 billion users, and the average daily audience of social networks. The network has 968 million users (approximately every 7th person on the planet is registered on Facebook). The site is valued at approximately $100 billion, making Mark Zuckerberg, at 23, the youngest billionaire on the planet.
A social network is a site through which you can communicate with other users of the resource. On such Internet platforms, you can publish and view information from other registered participants: music, photos and videos, documents, articles, and write comments.
The growing popularity of such portals encourages them to be used not only for personal purposes. Promotion and support of companies, sales of goods and services are the goals of strategies in social marketing (SMM). The key to success is choosing the right network among the many available. Otherwise, spending time and effort searching for the target audience will be useless. What social networks exist on the Internet, how do they differ from each other, and how have they earned popularity among their users? Let's take a closer look.
History of social networks
The first prototype of a communication service was described back in 1837 in a science fiction novel by Vladimir Odoevsky. The theory and principles of creation are set out in the works of mathematicians of the 1950-1960s. In 1954 the term itself appeared. Social networks became a reality with the widespread development of the Internet.
The first similarity was the resource Classmates.com in 1995, where you could find students from different educational institutions. The now more familiar look and functions appeared in the SixDegrees.com project in 1997. Registration, creating a personal profile, finding friends, communicating with them were innovative features for that time.
The now familiar social networks began to appear en masse in 2003. LinkedIn and Facebook are starting to work. Since 2006, Odnoklassniki and VKontakte have been created in Russia. Since then, the number of resources has been constantly increasing, new functions have appeared in them, which are not only convenient for users for entertainment and communication, but also for doing business.
What social networks are there on the Internet?
Based on functionality and opportunities for users, you can segment what types of social networks there are. To classify by content type, the following types of social networks can be distinguished:
Functionality
There are a lot of options for what to do on communication resources, but we can highlight the main ones. Services allow you to:
- Communicate – with colleagues, friends, like-minded people and many people who are interesting according to one or another criteria. You can join interest groups, meet for specific purposes, and share personal information with all or selected visitors to the resource.
- Search – people (according to certain parameters, for example, educational institutions, places of work, city of residence), companies and goods that are offered for sale through communication sites.
- Share news - media outlets and news agencies have their own pages. Information about events can be added by all participants.
- Relaxing - this is facilitated by a lot of varied content posted on the portal for a fee or free of charge: films, games, music.
- Learn – educational programs, lessons, materials and advice from other people allow you to gain useful information in different areas of life. Learn to cook, master the grammatical subtleties of another language, attend master classes on making useful items with your own hands, hone your skills in using technology or computer programs- all this will be found in abundance.
- Store files and share them.
- Find a job or employee - professional networks are created for the exchange of experience, development business connections, searching for vacancies from employers.
- Share documents – working on one task has never been so easy! Borders, time differences, and other factors are leveled out shared access, the ability to comment and edit materials.
Reasons for popularity
The huge interest in communication sites that has been observed in recent years is understandable. Among the main reasons:
Regardless of what kind of social networks there are, users are increasingly aware of the hidden threats from their use. And we’re not just talking about dependence on a computer or other gadget, although the time spent is valuable. Much worse, and sometimes even more dangerous, is the fact that personal life circumstances become known to a wide circle of people. The intentions of the latter are not always honest. Here are just a few examples:
- Apartment thieves can find out when the owners of an apartment or house have been away for a long time by looking at vivid vacation photos.
- For the abduction of a child, information about the parents will play into the hands, which will convince the child to believe that the person really knows mom or dad.
- It is easier to choose a potential victim after making sure of the person’s financial viability using information from open sources.
- Groups are being created for teenagers to encourage suicide.
It is becoming a common practice when, before hiring, HR employees look through the pages of a potential candidate, wanting to learn more about him, his habits and social circle. Explicit photos, aggressive posts, support for extremism and other aspects can play a negative role both in employment and in your career.
Leaks of personal data, manipulation of audiences, hacking of accounts with subsequent use are becoming more and more common. And even the giants in this area are not immune from such troubles. All this makes you think about what to publish on resources and who to give access to view, teaches you to comply minimum requirements Be careful online.
Trends and prospects
A 2017 report from We Are Social and Hootsuite shows compelling user growth on social media. With a total population of about 7.5 billion people, over 3 billion are registered in one application or another. 1 million new registrations occur every day. Moreover, the number of visits to sites with mobile devices– almost 90% of visitors use smartphones and tablets rather than desktop computers.
At the same time, if a couple of years ago it was possible to quickly find out news and life events on communication platforms real people, then now the situation is radically changing. There are more and more advertisements, posts about cats, motivators and other general information. And this is no longer such a close, intimate and familiar circle of friends. The level of trust drops, which means it becomes more difficult to sell something.
More and more startups are emerging, which, although they will not dislodge Facebook from its leadership position in the near future, will attract part of the audience. Planning a marketing campaign requires more care and a preliminary analysis of the selected resource, product and target audience.
Forecasts are that active growth will slow down and the social media boom will subside. You shouldn’t give up your usual web portal in favor of only a page on Facebook, VK or another network. The familiar Internet and websites will remain on par with social networks.
What are the most popular social networks
Dozens of services work. Some of them are loved in several countries or even around the world, others unite citizens of one country and are not widely used outside its borders. An overview of what social networks there are and a list of popular world services is provided below.
The unconditional first place is ensured by over 2.2 billion accounts in the world. Facebook has been in operation since 2004, created by Mark Zuckerberg. Simple and free service communication that allows:
- Register your own page where you post photos and other materials.
- Find other users, add them as friends, find out their news.
- Share information from the network or from other participants, upload videos and photographs.
- Create groups (open or closed).
- Find out the news.
- Comment and rate publications.
Facebook Inc. (the owner of the service) is constantly expanding its capabilities. Hyperlocal advertising (within a certain radius from the advertiser), Snapchat (disappearing stories), GIF animation for commenting, saving interesting materials, messenger and other functions confidently retain the interest of users.
YouTube
Video hosting You Tube from Google is the most popular video network in the world. It is also considered a social network, as it allows users to register, communicate, and share their videos. Here you can find information for every taste, from entertainment to educational courses. Founded in February 2005 in the USA. At the beginning of 2018, there are over 1.5 billion active users, and the result of several million views of popular videos is quite achievable.
Main features:
- Post your videos for viewing.
- Various formats are supported: panoramas, HD, Full HD, MPEG-4 AVC and others.
- Edit videos from the browser using editor programs (add titles, audio tracks, images, transitions).
- Comment, rate other people's videos or comments.
- Create group chats.
- Maintain a video channel.
The company is trying to control the content of the resource, periodically deleting videos that violate copyright and are recognized as extremist. In some countries, the resource is blocked for publishing materials objectionable to the authorities.
Mobile messenger for more than 1.2 billion people. WhatsApp was created in 2009, and since 2014 it has been owned by Facebook Inc. It is considered a social network due to its functions:
- Correspondence between participants.
- Creation of groups, communication in group chat mode.
- Share videos, music and other content.
- Possibility of assigning statuses for an account.
These features make it possible to classify WhatsApp as a social network, with one feature - it works on the basis phone book. Needed for communication phone number interlocutor. Whether this limits it or, on the contrary, allows you to maintain privacy – there are different opinions. One of the advantages is that a large number of versions have been developed that support different operating systems, including Symbian (which is rare).
Application for different operating systems for publishing pictures and short videos (up to 60 seconds), viewing materials of other participants, with the ability to rate and comment. Since its launch in 2010, Instagram has reached more than 1.1 billion registered members. In 2012, it was acquired by Facebook Inc. Popular Features:
- Blogging.
- Photo processing - effects, frames, special shooting modes, collages.
- Creating your profile and publication feed.
- View friends, rate and comment on their posts.
- Cross-posting – simultaneous posting of material on several social networks.
- Search necessary information using hashtags (special marks).
Instagram is especially popular among young people under 25 years of age and is actively developing. This network is one of the most promising for business, product promotion, brand promotion and services.
The leader among Chinese services is WeChat, a micromessaging application. Considering the ban in the country of world favorites Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, Chinese users communicate with their developments. WeChat is not just an application; it has much more options. Basic:
- Personal communication, video calls, voice messages.
- Group chats for up to 500 people.
- Blogs, reviews, testimonials, “Moments”.
- Pay bills and purchases.
- Dating (including geographic search).
- Photo editing, text translation.
- One account per different devices simultaneously.
And although there are a number of restrictions (for example, one publication per day), the application is relatively new (working since 2011), the number of accounts is approaching a billion. WeChat is being promoted outside of China (Russia, India and other countries).
Qzone
A Chinese social network with the following capabilities: blogging, watching videos, listening to music, communicating, making purchases. Basic options are free, additional options are available with a premium subscription. Since its founding (2005), it has attracted 600 million participants. Available in English and Chinese.
Sina Weibo
A Chinese version of a microblog, basically similar to Facebook and Twitter. Since its inception (2009), it has attracted the attention of more than 500 million users. Development is hampered by the support of English and Chinese languages and government censorship of the country. It has a convenient tree structure for comments, an online shopping service, and a premium profile with advanced functionality. On the Internet you can communicate, meet new people, download and view photos, search for interesting information and follow the news.
Google+
Google's own development. The operating principle is based on the concept of circles. The user creates them himself, regulating who and what information will be available. Main features: sharing photos, videos, links, games, group chats, support for mobile devices, video conferencing. Launched in 2011, there are more than 135 million users. Profile linked to by email from Google and influences search results. The service is considered one of the most promising; the number of accounts is expected to grow steadily in the coming years.
Network for professionals. More than 500 million users from 200 countries communicate on its pages. The main emphasis is not on entertainment, humor, news and other content familiar to other services, but on a resume, portfolio, list of skills (with confirmation from real people), vacancies. Asking colleagues for advice, discussing professional issues, looking for a job or employees, getting recommendations are the tasks of LinkedIn. The project was launched in 2003 and purchased by Microsoft in 2016.
Started working in the USA in 2006. Features: blogging with short messages (maximum 280 characters). An interesting option is “Moments” (plots with development). You can learn about high-profile, popular news without subscribing to other users. People famous in a variety of fields from show business to sports maintain their microblogs on Twitter. The total number of accounts exceeds 330 million.
What social networks are there in Russia?
In Russia, the popularity of online communication services does not lag behind global indicators. Only they have their favorites - Russian VKontakte and Odnoklassniki. It is imperative for anyone who promotes their products or brand through SMM to know their leaders in this industry.
The rating of all social networks in Russia is estimated as part of the traffic that is created by this service on the Runet. The assessment is based on the results of 2018 studies of the largest Russian statistical data collection services on the Internet: Yandex.Metrica, SpyLog/Openstat, LiveInternet, Hotlog, [email protected].
These services lead in activity among Russians. Let's briefly look at two main national developments.
In contact with
Russian network created in 2006. Owned by Mail.Ru Group. Supports over 90 languages, over 460 million registered users. Most popular among Russian-speaking users - the leader of all social networks in Russia in terms of use. Possibilities:
- Creating your own page.
- Correspondence with other project participants.
- Sending pictures, audio and video recordings.
- Online cooperative games.
This resource is most often chosen for online stores and sales. This is facilitated by a wide range of opportunities and a large Russian-speaking audience.
Classmates
Another successful development by Mail.Ru Group. It ranks third in popularity in Russia with more than 330 million participants. The project is available in 14 languages and has been operating since 2006. Main features:
- Your own page for publishing information.
- Communication by messages or video calls.
- Search for people using different parameters.
- Payment for goods, money transfers.
- Additional paid options (invisibility, blacklist...).
The Odnoklassniki project works both full and in mobile version, which is convenient, saves network traffic and time for loading the page.
List of social networks
A clear answer to the question “which social networks are better?” No. Each of them has a number of advantages and is popular in a certain environment. Country, age, range of interests influence preferences. We have decided on the main services, but the choice is much wider. Below is a list that includes the most promoted projects.
Social networks of the world:
- For communication: Facebook, VKontakte, MirTesen, Pinterest, Moy [email protected], Odnoklassniki, xbeee.com, Pikabu, ASKfm, Cloob, Instagram, Google+, Myspace, RetroShare, Vine.
- Thematic: Promise Bank, Diary, On the Wall, Habbo, Jeep-er Club, Auto Club AutoPCL, NumPlate, Last.fm, Olvet Community Network, MyAnimeList, Untappd, CHIF.SU, Wakoopa, Vsoyue, ktoprochto.ru, Nekto.me , Dravi.ru, Generations, Starichki.ru, Mom's page, MommyBuzz, BabyBlog, Badoo, Mamba, LovePlanet, Vichatter.net, Violetta, MegaMixGroup, Sociale by Vampir4ik, Ilovecinema.ru, Goodreads, Oplace, Zeenga.ru, We place , DRUZHNO.COM, Peers, Lemberg, Limpa, Badoo, LibertySpace, Locals.ru, Facerunet.ru, Krabitsa, Love Me Tender, Vpiski.Net, Neforu.ru, Budist.ru, Politix.ru, Politiko, In the Army, Classmates, Smeshariki, Moya Shkola.com, KSODIS, TOPodnoklassniki, Webkrug.ru, Car2gether, Tourout.ru, Marshruty.ru, Geoid, Naarende, IT Specialists, Habrahabr, Abyrvalg.NET, BookHook, Rybakiohotniki.ru, Foursquare, Schoolchildren .
- Professional: Doctor at work, My Circle, Professionals, E-xecutive, Mendeley, iVrach, LinkedIn, Viadeo, Academia.edu, Voiceland, Webby.ru, My Business Card, ResearchGate,.
- For blogs: Instagram, Fixfeel, Twitter, TipTopic.net, RuTvit, Toodoo, Blogosphere, LiveJournal, LiveJournal, Diary.ru.
- Asian: Tencent Qzone, Sina Weibo, QQ, Renren, Pengyou, WeChat, Douban.
Find like-minded people, meet love, get advice, learn something new and just chat - everything is possible on social networks. And what are the most popular ones you now know.
Nowadays, almost everyone has a page on some social network. They are especially popular among the younger generation, however, older people do not remain aloof from all the benefits that the World Wide Web provides and become active users of various sites. This is why the 2019 social media rating will be useful to many.
comparison table
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| Name | Interface | Music | Photo | Video | Additional functions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | + – | + | + | + | + – |
In contact with | + | + | + | + | + |
| + | + – | + – | + – | – | |
Classmates | + – | + | + | + – | + – |
| + | – | – | – | + – | |
My world | + – | + – | + – | + – | + – |
BabyBlog | + | – | + | – | + |
| + | + – | + – | + – | + | |
| + | + – | + – | + – | + – | |
| + | + – | + – | + – | + – | |
| + | – | – | – | + – | |
| + | + | + – | + | + | |
| + | – | + – | – | + | |
Professionals | + | – | + | – | + – |
Livejournal | + – | – | – | – | + – |
| + | + – | + | + – | + – | |
AlterGeo | + | + – | + – | + – | + |
Shararam | + | + – | + – | + – | + |
My school | + | + | + | + | + |
Kindernet | + – | – | + | – | + – |
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The blue color interface is considered calming and has remained virtually unchanged since its inception.
Zuckerberg is colorblind. And blue is the only color he sees without distortion.
And although it is sometimes difficult for new users to understand, those who have been using the sites for a long time are accustomed to it. That is why we cannot say that the site’s interface is completely user-friendly.
In contact with
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Many people believe that the site’s interface replicates the Facebook interface, but it is worth noting that VKontakte is much more convenient to use.
And even despite a number of changes, additions, and innovations that partially overlap with the global network, VK remains unique and interesting for young people.
It is worth noting that in 2017, the developers added a number of interesting additions that appealed to all users of the social network.
And although the number of registered users is decreasing, this does not mean that the site is losing its popularity. He just supports his significant audience with new “tricks”.
It is worth noting that the following functions are at their best:
- music;
- video;
- posts;
- location of message windows;
- photo;
- news feed.
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Odnoklassniki
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As you know, this corporation is famous for its significant projects and quality products.
And although this network, focused specifically on video, but this does not reduce its popularity.
Google bought YouTube in 2006 for $1.65 billion.
Many users nowadays have their own channel.
Video bloggers have literally taken over. They are the ones who gather a significant audience on the site, so the social network offers various gifts to those who dial a certain amount of subscribers.
And although communication here takes place, mostly in the form of comments, users have already gotten used to it and this does not bother them at all.
If someone wants to chat privately, they go to any other social network.
My world
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And although it is far from the sites listed above, its use by an audience of over 16 million allows it to be included in the ranking of social networks in 2017.
Moy Mir and Odnoklassniki belong to Mail.ru. He also owns a large stake in VKontakte.
It is worth noting that to a large extent this network is focused on allowing users not only to communicate, but also to find like-minded people in various online games.
As the industry of such games develops more and more, we can say that such features are a significant plus for many users.
BabyBlog
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You can write your own blog or find answers to your questions. Moms also tell interesting stories.
What’s interesting is that the site cooperates with a number of different companies and holds various competitions. The prizes are various nice gifts for the baby or mother.
Among other things, you can select your city and search for information only on it. It is possible to buy and sell through the site using a “flea market”.
This is the most visited portal in Russia for pregnant women and mothers.
The same goes for various places you can visit with children.
In general, it is an extremely convenient site for people with children, which offers many opportunities and information.
Google Plus
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Nowadays, when games on devices have become so popular, such a function is integral.
Initially in Google Plus It was possible to enter only by invitation of an already registered user. And in less than two weeks, they gained a million subscribers.
However, it is worth noting that, despite the large number of registered users, they do not use it very often.
More like storage and identification for various applications.
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This is not just a gadget-oriented messenger, but also a social network. Here you can create interest groups and exchange opinions. Why not a social network?
This application involves instant transfer of messages and files. This is justified by the fact that it requires mandatory attachment to a mobile phone number.
Very The user-friendly interface and green color are liked by many users.
It is possible to create a group chat, which allows you to exchange files and messages with a large group of people.
And although this is not a specific site, but an application that needs to be downloaded, however it can be found on most modern devices.
A convenient messenger is what many users need now. Besides WhatsApp allows you to share free messages with people from all over the world.
Viber
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The application is similar to the previous one.
Very convenient for those who spend a lot of time on the Internet.
The site allows you to find exactly what everyone needs. Indeed, in addition to global social networks, it also focuses on thematic ones.
MySpace
The site has recently become increasingly popular among the younger generation.
A very interesting and unusual interface attracts attention.
And searching for videos, music and people is much easier.
In 2008, a beta version of MySpace was launched in Russian. But a year and a half later, the management of the social network announced the closure of the Russian division.
You can not only communicate with people, but also view various tops and world news (mainly show business news).
In general, everything that is so interesting to the younger generation, which is what the site is aimed at.
This network provides many opportunities (especially in the field of IT technologies). This way you can:
- find potential candidates for a particular position by creating vacancies;
- publish your resume and look for work;
- publish and send recommendations;
- blog;
- participate in various surveys;
- find answers to questions related to professional topics;
- publish information about various events (for example, conferences);
- post information about various companies and the services they provide.
From the above, you can understand that this is a highly targeted network, which, however, has many extremely useful functions This is why it is so popular in the professional field.
In 2016, Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion.
Professionals
Using the site you can look for business partners and like-minded people, as well as banking specialists and marketing specialists.
It took approximately two million dollars to create and promote the site.
Initially, Professionals.ru was conceived as a way of communication within one organization. But over time, it was decided to expand the capabilities.
Professionali.ru is a kind of business community in which you can create contacts by industry and location.
LiveJournal
Many people who like to share their thoughts prefer to create an account on LiveJournal.
New users may find the interface a little awkward, but over time it becomes clear that the site is quite easy to use.
It is also convenient because in a certain feed all posted posts of friends added by the user are shown. That is, you can choose what exactly you want to read.
You can only add 2000 friends to LiveJournal. This number can only be increased by contacting the social network administration.
However, it is worth noting that Users can get all the features of the Journal by paying for a premium account.
The rest will have to be content with limited opportunities.
This is a significant disadvantage of the site, but most people prefer LiveJournal as a blogging site.
Spaces
After filling out the questionnaire, you can select a person who matches your interests. A very convenient search, since the system automatically finds people who are in the same city.
An interesting and non-standard interface attracts attention. And the purple coloring with bright splashes makes the site bright and memorable.
In addition, the system allows you to create a kind of journal, which, if desired, can be hidden from strangers.
However, the downside of the site is that Almost any user action is accompanied by a message from the System. This causes some inconvenience.
AlterGeo
Today, social networks are so firmly rooted in our lives that the composition of the top five most popular social platforms remains virtually unchanged from year to year. However, the penetration and use of these social networks varies depending on geography and demographic factors. Understanding these differences plays a big role when targeting specific audiences. When comparing the most popular social networks, it is important to pay attention not to the number of registered accounts, but to the number of active users. From the review you will learn which social networks are growing faster than others, and which are currently in decline.
The most popular social platforms
The chart, produced by analytics agency Statista, gives a clear picture of the number of active users (in millions) on the world's most popular social networks. Topping the list is Facebook. This can hardly surprise anyone. Facebook holds the majority of the market share with over 2 billion active users. In January 2017, the giant's closest competitor was WhatsApp, which is also owned by Facebook. Then he was in second place. Today, YouTube is in second place with 1.5 billion active users. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp occupy third and fourth places respectively.
They are followed by platforms, the majority of whose audience is located in the Asia-Pacific region. These are QQ, WeChat and Qzone (with more than 600 million active users). This shows that there are a number of popular social media in APAC countries. After them, we see a cluster of platforms popular mainly in the West - Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter.
What about in Russia?
In Russia, the penetration of social networks is estimated at 47%; 67.8 million Russians have accounts on them. According to Statista, YouTube is used most actively in the Russian Federation (63% of respondents), VKontakte takes second place - 61%. Global leader Facebook is only in fourth place with an indicator of 35%. Skype and WhatsApp dominate among instant messengers (38% each).
Social networks that are growing faster than others
Marketers usually don’t spend much time on SMM. Which social network should you concentrate your efforts on? Twitter, which amassed 313 million users between 2010 and 2017, has seen the slowest growth compared to its biggest competitors Facebook, WhatsApp and China's WeChat. Founded in 2013, Instagram had already surpassed Twitter in terms of audience size by 2014.
A new study from Statista shows that Twitter fell far behind its peers in 2017. It saw the lowest growth in monthly active audience, with only 23 million from Q3 2015 to Q3 2017. Facebook, meanwhile, grew by 461 million.
How users interact with brands on social networks
Knowing how to behave and what posts to make on social media is also important, since it shapes the image of your brand and, as a result, encourages users to buy your products or, conversely, unsubscribe from your groups. Social media is increasingly being used as customer engagement platforms where customers, existing and potential, want answers to their questions in real time. A chart taken from a Sprout Social report shows that 48% of users can be persuaded to buy by quickly answering questions in a group. 46% respond positively to promotions, and 42% may choose a brand's product if its page contains educational content. 27% of surveyed users admitted that they would be willing to make a purchase if they were shown materials that are usually left behind the scenes.
Half of Sprout Social survey respondents said they would unfollow a brand's community if I posted content that they found offensive, and 27% said they would mark a brand and its page as spam and block it. That is why, to reach and engage your potential clients it is so important to publish relevant and interesting materials that resonate with your target audience.
Social networks with the most active audience
An important factor that influences how much time we should devote to SMM on a particular social network is the level of audience engagement. Here again, Facebook dominates, and also has the highest engagement over time, according to data from analytics firm comScore's study of a panel of US consumers.
Facebook's success is amazing. In addition to the social network itself occupying the top spot, other corporate-owned platforms also took second and third place. Facebook Messenger has a 47% penetration rate, with Instagram right behind it.
From the latest data from Pew Internet, shown in the chart below, we can see that Facebook also leads in the number of active audiences per day. 76% of users log into the social network every day, on Instagram this figure is 51%. Only 42% of Twitter users check it daily, which is almost half that of Facebook.
The average daily duration of use of social networks in the United States is 2 hours 1 minute; in Russia, users spend a little more time on social platforms - 2 hours 19 minutes.
Engagement rates in different social networks
Marketing analytics company TrackMaven analyzed 51 million posts from companies across 130 industries to find out which social networks have the highest engagement rates. The results showed that the absolute leader in terms of engagement per 1000 subscribers is Instagram. This is so much higher than other social networks that we had to create a separate chart to illustrate the difference between Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
As you can see from the second graph, Facebook is significantly ahead of Twitter and LinkedIn. This is largely due to the fact that more people post on Twitter because there is no algorithm to show content to only a small portion of the audience. Because of this, brands have to flood their feeds with posts to break through the information noise. This, in turn, reduces the response rate to publications. Below is the average daily number of posts per account on three social networks.
General statistics on social media usage around the world
Every year, WeAreSocial updates its comprehensive Global Digital Report, which compiles actionable data on social media around the world. From it you can find out how differently social platforms are used in different parts of the world. It is surprising that Western countries are seriously lagging behind in the rate of penetration of social networks.
Below are the main conclusions of the studies.
- The number of Internet users in 2018 reached 4.021 billion people, which is 7 percent more than a year ago.
- The audience of social networks in 2018 totals 3.196 billion people - 13% higher than last year’s figure.
- Number of users mobile phones is 5.135 billion people, this means plus 4% compared to last year.
The numbers are growing rapidly, especially for active users of social networks on mobile devices - the penetration rate is 39%, which is 5% more than in 2017.
If we talk about the structure of web traffic depending on the type of device, then the most traffic is generated by mobile users (52%, which is 4% higher than last year). Only 43% of all web pages are visited from desktops, which is 3% lower than last year.
Northern, Western and Southern Europe, as well as North America, boast the most high level Internet penetration - 74%-94% of the total population uses the World Wide Web. In Russia, 110 million people use the Internet—76% of the total population.
The growth in the global audience of social networks since January 2017 was 13%. The fastest growth in the number of users is observed in Saudi Arabia. Since January 2017, their number has increased by 32%, the global average is 17%. Other countries with the highest growth rates include India, Indonesia and Ghana. The reason for the jump was the development of technology, which made it easier for the population to access social platforms. Social networks grew the slowest in the UAE, South Korea and the UK -<5%. В России пользователей соцсетей стало на 8 826 000 человек больше (+15% к прошлогоднему значению).
Since Facebook has the largest share of users, it would be useful to know how the content you post will perform on the social network and what features to use to increase its reach. According to social network statistics, the average reach of a publication is 10.7%, with organic posts having 8% (organic reach in Russia is 11.3%), and for paid posts this value is 26.8% (27.4% in Russia) . Organic and paid Facebook posts have huge potential. It is important to target publications correctly in order to receive quality leads.
You can get a more complete picture of the state of the global digital market in 2018 by studying our review of the Internet 2017-2018 in the world and in Russia: statistics and trends, which we prepared based on the Global Digital 2018 study.
Popularity of social networks by country
The graph below from the GlobalWebIndex report, based on a survey of Internet users, perfectly reflects the popularity of various social networks by country. Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, India and Brazil are among the top ten most active audiences on each social network, significantly ahead of the US, UK and European countries.
Of the four social networks presented (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Google+), Russians are the most active users of the video service. Twitter and Google+ are used relatively often by only 20% of our compatriots, and Facebook is regularly viewed by just over 40%.
Demographic statistics of social media use
As can be seen from the graph, different age groups have a similar pattern of social media use. This suggests that social networks have reached a stage of maturity where they can reach all demographic groups, regardless of age and gender. The exceptions are Instagram and Tumblr, which have younger audiences.
Strategies for interacting with social media audiences
According to The State of Social 2018 study, 96% of brands have a presence on Facebook.
Moreover, only half of the respondents have a documented SMM strategy. Large businesses are a little more responsible about this issue than small companies (60% said they have such a document).
When it comes to the types of content brands publish, images, links, and text lead the way. Even though video posts tend to get the most engagement, video content only comes in fourth. This is primarily due to the complexity of creating such materials.
At the end of 2017, Smart Insights, together with Clutch, conducted a survey among business representatives, in which they asked which social networks were of the greatest value to them. It turned out that among B2C companies Facebook is considered the most effective (93% of respondents), and most B2B companies prefer LinkedIn (93%).
The Value of Social Media for Brands in 2018
- If you think that your target audience is not on social networks, you are mistaken.
Through social networks you can reach any audience, regardless of gender, age, social status. 98% of online consumers are registered on social networks, a fairly large part of them are adults 55-64 years old.
- People devote a third of their time on the Internet to social networks.
The average user spends 2 hours 15 minutes a day scrolling through their feed and communicating on social platforms, and young people aged 16-24 spend almost three hours. If you do not consider SMM as a channel for attracting customers, then you are voluntarily giving up the attention of your target audience to your competitors.
- Half of all social media users follow brand pages.
4 out of 10 internet users follow their favorite companies on social media, and a quarter follow brands when planning to buy something. People respond positively to such content, so an active presence on social media is of great value to companies.
- Social networks are the main source of information for consumers.
People aged 16-24 prefer to look for information about brands on social networks rather than on search engines. A quarter of users in this age group admit that a large number of likes on a brand’s page can persuade them to make a purchase. In the group of 35-44 years old, 20% of respondents said the same. Social commerce can be considered one of the main channels for generating profit, which means it is important to diversify your efforts and not rely only on advertising.
- Watching videos is a favorite pastime on social media.
Facebook is the largest social network in terms of number of users, but YouTube takes first place in terms of traffic and the reason is because of the video. Video posts receive the most active response, and that is why leading brands constantly publish videos on their pages.
The following materials were used in preparing the article:
- Global Social Media Research Summary 2018 by Smart Insights
- The State of Social 2018 report by Social Media Week
- The Biggest Social Media Trends Shaping 2018 article published on the GlobalWebIndex blog
- Social Networks Study: How social networks were used in 2017 by analytical agency Metricool
- Global Digital 2018 report package compiled by WeAreSocial analytical agency
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Almost every modern person has pages on. This helps to keep in touch with the world, communicate with friends, learn something useful, and, of course, keep abreast of everything that is happening. Social networks are most popular among people, but the older generation also does not remain aloof from the benefits that it offers them.
Those who do not have pages on social networks seem strange to active users, because they do not post photos, do not make virtual friends, and do not receive information. But there is a simple explanation for this - people who do not use social networks, either communicate offline and do not want to waste their time, or they are simply not interested - they are satisfied with everything in life, so there is no desire to look for something in the virtual world.
10. In the Circle of Friends
Communities of interest are also offered to users. Registration on the site is free, here you can correspond, view the news feed, play - everything is the same as on other social networks.
Mostly older people use the site; young people choose other social networks.
Launch date: 2003
9. Facebook
The largest American social network in the world " Facebook"continues to develop and improve. New Russian-speaking users often abandon the site without having time to understand its interface and rules, returning to VKontakte, but Facebook cannot be avoided when there is a desire or need to make international acquaintances.
After thoroughly studying the site, you understand how many opportunities it provides: you can make your profile completely private, you can also hide your friends, limit other users’ access to your profile photo - it will be available only to friends.
Users can also create separate pages with expanded functionality under one account.
Launch date: 2004
8.Twitter
Short notes in blog format are called microblogging. The service is free. Some people use Twitter as a diary, some take notes, and others follow the lives of their favorite celebrities. You can change your profile and decorate it as you wish.
The social network also gives you the opportunity to make money from advertising in your feed, but you will have to try hard to do this. The feed should be interesting to other users, and it is also very important not to forget to follow back, otherwise all the followers will run away.
Launch date: 2006
7. Habrahabr
Interesting fact: word " Habrahabr" arose by chance and meant greeting. At some point they decided to use it as the name of the project. There is an opinion that in some language it means “hair”.
The website was created to publish news, thoughts, and analytical articles related to information technology. "Habrahabr" is a very educational and interesting resource on which ordinary people write fascinating articles.
On the site you can learn about news from the world of inventions, science and technology. There is information on the resource for every taste.
Launch date: 2006
6. LiveJournal
« LiveJournal» is a blog platform on the Russian and world Internet for maintaining online diaries. On the site you can publish posts, comment on others, maintain collective blogs (communities), add users as friends to monitor changes in the feed.
In terms of expressing one's thoughts, this is the largest online platform. A huge advantage of this resource is, in addition to everything else, that it does not advertising.
Launch date: 1999
5. My World
Users have an uncertain attitude towards the social network - it is convenient to use as mail, the interface is simple, but “My World” is dominated by spammers.
When viewing a user’s page, a person will see who visited him, but it is possible to send a paid SMS to become a secret.
Periodically, notifications are sent to the mail about people who studied at the same school as the user - for some, this is an opportunity to find those with whom they once lost contact.
Launch date: 2007
4. YouTube
It is hardly possible to find people who have not heard of the video hosting site " YouTube" Users can view, comment, download and share videos.
Thanks to its convenience and simplicity, YouTube has become the most popular video hosting service, regularly visited by more than 4 billion people.
On the site you can find videos for every taste: documentaries and regular films, music videos, entertainment and educational programs, etc.
The only negative is inappropriate comments, but you can ignore them.
Launch date: 2005 year.
3.Instagram
« Instagram» is a popular application for sharing photos and videos. Many users cannot imagine life without this application, while others, on the contrary, negatively perceive the idea of putting their lives on display.
The application is suitable for people who love to take pictures and share news from their lives with their friends.
Some people use Instagram to make money, such as selling handmade products. The main source of visitors and subscribers is provided by written hashtags.
Launch date: 2010
2. Odnoklassniki
Russian social network " Classmates» Convenient for communicating with friends, watching movies, listening to music and much more. On the site you can find people with whom you once lost contact, as well as make useful contacts.
Odnoklassniki has interest groups, a video call, various applications, you can add photos to an album, comment on others. On a social network you can not only communicate, but also work. The social network is most popular among the older generation (50+).
Launch date: 2006
1. VKontakte
VK users can share instant messages, create interest groups, post photos and videos, and play browser games.
In your personal profile, you can indicate your details: hobbies, place of work, etc. The social network is convenient to use, but it takes a lot of time and is addictive.
In order to find adequate and truly interesting content, you have to “dig”, since there is a lot of useless information on VK.
Launch date: 2006
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