As of 2020, we are now spending more time on the internet that watching TV. This statistic is mainly due to the fact that we are now using our smartphones more than ever before.
And as you might have guessed, social media is a large portion of smartphone usage. So as social media apps play such a large part in out lives, here are the top social media platforms with over 100 million users!
I have also included international providers for all platforms. You can also see my resources for each platform below the list. Lets begin!
Top 20 Social Media Platforms With Over 100 Million Users
1: Facebook
Monthly Active Users: 2.23 billion
Type: Global Social Networking for personal communication, business and brand marketing.
Founded in 2004, Facebook is one of the most popular top social media platforms in the world. With the vast amount of functions and engagement opportunities, this network aims to be a platform that does it all – videos, photos, communication, games, advertisements and more.
Generally, people will engage by posting status updates, sharing photos, posting videos, live streaming videos, and advertising their individual and branded businesses.
For more data on FaceBook usage and social media UK usage statistics, see my full guide here.
2: WhatsApp
Monthly Active Users: 1.5 billion
Type: Messenger, Communication, and Calling.
Created in 2009, this messenger platform became a vital application for international communication especially, without the need to pay for services to call and text, and rather use data and Wi-Fi.
The ability to share text messengers, photos, videos, and calls are why people have latched onto this social media app and have given it this long-standing reputation for over a decade already.
3: Facebook Messenger
Monthly Active Users: 1.5 Billion
Type: Messenger, Communication, and Calling.
Seven years after the launch of Facebook, it launched its messenger service in 2011. The ability to send messages with text, photos, videos, and files, as well as voice and video calling is what makes this social media platform work.
As a branch of Facebook itself, the users from Facebook utilise messenger in a big way, making it a close second to WhatsApp high on this list of the top social media platforms.
4: Instagram
Monthly Active Users: +1 billion
Type: Image and Video Sharing Platform.
Instagram was created in 2010 as an image sharing application. Facebook bought the company in 2012 and has been expanding its functionality ever since. Now people are using it as a way to document and share their personal lives, advertise professional business and to connect with others.
Instagram photo sharing is still the most popular way to engage, though now there is also the ability to post videos and stories (which is similar to the concept of Snapchat in only having stories available for a short time to view). IGTV is also a recent function, which allows people to stream live, or post longer format videos to viewers.
5: WeChat
Monthly Active Users: 1 billion
Type: Messenger, Communication, and Calling.
Released in 2011, WeChat is a Chinese equivalent to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, with not much difference except that it is created in China, for Chinese, and that it also has the function of being able to make purchases for products on the mobile device.
6: QQ (by Tencent)
Monthly Active Users: 694.1 million
Type: Messenger, Communication, and Calling.
Owned by the popular technology company, Tencent, QQ is another instant messaging service, which has been around (in its original version) since 1999. The service features allow text and video chat, as well as offering its own currency called ‘QQ Coin’ to purchase products in the application.
Additional features include a translator and gaming options, and interestingly, it’s become so popular that although it was originally made for just Chinese users, it’s a globally used platform now.
7: Baidu Tieba
Monthly Active Users: 665 million
Type: Global Social Networking for personal communication, business and brand marketing.
Baidu is the top three search engines in the world, known as the Chinese ‘Google’, making it onto this list of top social media platforms.
The company created its own social media platform, Baidu Tieba, in 2003. It’s one of the most widely used and engaging social networking sites in China now, making it one of the top social media platforms since China’s internet user population is so large.
8: QZone
Monthly Active Users: 600 million
Type: Chinese Social Networking for personal communication, business and brand marketing.
Also owned by the tech company mentioned above, Tencent, this Chinese social media network launched in 2005, and has been designed purely for Chinese Mandarin speakers using smartphones.
Users can write blog posts, personal notes, watch videos, listen to music, send photos and message other users in a variety of ways.
9: Sina Weibo
Monthly Active Users: 445 million
Type: Chinese Social Networking for personal communication, business and brand marketing.
Sina Weibo is another social media platform created in China. It’s a micro blogging website, launched own 2009, that has spread to be one of the most highly engaged platforms in China today.
People generally share short blogs with others, though as it has grown, functions are similar to that of Facebook, now.
10: Twitter
Monthly Active Users: 321 million
Type: Global Social Networking for personal communication, business and brand marketing.
Launched in 2006, this platform is a little different to other social media platforms, as its niche is in small concise text postings called ‘Tweets’ that have specific word limits. Links can be added to the posted text, to services, products or pages.
Often, this platform is used to share instant news for world affairs, popular culture, or business and organisations sharing with their teams, users, customers, or followers.
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11: Snapchat
Monthly Active Users: 300 million
Type: Messenger, Communication, and Calling.
Launched in 2011, Snapchat is a niche social media platform in that it utilises timed sharing of photos in a story format so users can interact by viewing each other’s shares, but only for a short amount of time.
The design of having only a certain amount of time to view the share is why it has enjoyed such a big success. Users become hooked on viewing the platform multiple times a day in order to not ‘miss out’ on a share.
12: Reddit
Monthly Active Users: 330 million
Type: Global forum-based Social Networking and information sharing.
The main idea of this popular social media network is that people ask questions, discuss ideas and respond to one another in a global forum for all to see. Relevant and helpful answers are up-voted for people to view the most helpful or interesting ideas shared.
Since its inception in 2005, Reddit has an incredible amount of global active engagement per minute, giving the platform its place in this list of the top social media networks.
13: Quora
Monthly Active Users: 300 million
Type: Global forum-based Social Networking and information sharing.
Very similar to Reddit and created 4 years after that platform, Quora was launched in 2009. This global forum-based platform revolves around users asking questions on any topic, with other users – often experts in their fields – answering the questions and getting up voted.
People are then able to view the answers to the questions, with a feed of questions and information being curated to users chosen interests, so that they may browse questions and answers, as well as comment and communicate with others.
14: Skype
Monthly Active Users: 300 million
Type: Messenger, Communication, and Calling.
Founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, the intelligent Skype software was created by Jaan Tallinn, Priit Kasesalu and Estonians Ahti Heinla. For international connections in voice and video calling specifically, this platform is a longstanding popular messaging and communication tool for personal and professional use.
Microsoft Corporation is the parent organization that this company that has made it as one of the top social media platforms.
15: Viber
Monthly Active Users: 260 million
Type: Messenger, Communication, and Calling.
Owned by the Japanese company known as Rakuten, Viber was originally released at the end of 2010. It allows users to have a secure messaging experience where the company shares that they use end-to-end encryption without storing, reading or sharing any messages from the technical back end of the platform.
The ‘secret chats’ feature of Viber is a favourite for users where the message gets deleted as soon as the person reads it, meaning no one can go back and read the messages later. Images, videos, and text messages can be sent through the network, and it’s available in 30 different languages and all different devices.
16: LinkedIn
Monthly Active Users: 260 million
Type: Global Social Networking for professional communication, business and brand marketing.
This American business and employment platform was founded in 2002, though launched a year later in 2003. It’s used for networking in a professional setting, with employers posting jobs information.
Job seekers can also upload an online portfolio and highlighting their professional CV to share with prospective employers. The site is a global networking community, with people around the world able to connect, search and share international listings for jobs, as well as area-specific jobs.
Users can connect in groups, chat with other users, read, share, post and comment on articles, and explore more in different areas of industry.
17: Pinterest
Monthly Active Users: 250 million
Type: Image Sharing platform.
Launched in 2010, this social media application for desktop and mobile was designed to be a search engine of images, where certain images are displayed in a gallery where people can then be directed to the website that contains the image and relevant information.
Users search for topics and keywords and are then directed to the curated gallery. The discovery platform allows people to not only view the images, but to also save ‘pins’ that they find interesting (hence the name), or for other users to explore their self-curated galleries on these topics.
This is where the social media aspect comes in, where people share their own array of ideas and recommendations of sites based on areas of interests.
18: Imgur
Monthly Active Users: 250+ million
Type: Image Sharing platform.
Another image sharing platform makes it onto the list of top social media platforms. Imgur was created in 2009 and was originally designed to be an additional platform for Reddit users to use more visual imagery for their threads of conversations and articles.
The platform focuses predominately on sharing gifs, photos and videos that are based on current popular culture and specific areas of interest. Most often, the memes and gifs are the popular choice for people to use as an additional way to express themselves to others in their communication or commenting.
19: Telegram
Monthly Active Users: 200 million
Type: Messenger, Communication, and Calling.
This invite-based instant messenger application is available on a range of operating systems and devices and was created in 2013.
The private and secure system is what makes telegram different from the rest of the instant messaging software. Data isn’t disclosed to third-party marketers or external agencies of any kind, and end-to-end encryption is part of their design.
Users interact through voice calls, text messaging, and secret chats. It runs along similar lines as the above fore-mentioned Viber application.
20: Google Plus
Monthly Active Users: 111 million
Type: Global Social Networking for personal communication, business and brand marketing.
Created and operated by Google, the network launched in 2011 as an attempt for Google to make its mark on the social media online world. The idea was tapping into the niche of creating circles/communities of people that have similar interests as you, with video, photo, and text messenger sharing ability.
It integrated with Google’s other services, so you could link your Google Plus with Hangouts, Gmail and the rest of Google’s functionality. They tried to compete with the other top social media platforms, and even managed to reach above 100 million active users.
Though, Google has decided to close the platform later in 2019, due to lack of growth and inability to compete with the big names in social media.
If you are looking to make the next Google, check out my post on the best cheapest web hosting providers so you can start getting traffic to your website!
References
- Facebook: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
- WhatsApp: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WhatsApp
- Facebook Messenger: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_Messenger
- Instagram: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instagram
- WeChat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WeChat
- QQ: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tencent_QQ
- Baidu Tieba: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baidu_Tieba
- Qzone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qzone
- Sina Weibo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sina_Weibo
- Twitter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
- Snapchat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapchat
- Reddit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddit
- Quora: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quora
- Skype: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype
- Viber: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viber
- LinkedIn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn
- Pinterest: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinterest
- Imgur: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imgur
- Telegram: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)
- Google Plus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%2B