Global social media users surpass 5 billion mark, reports Digital 2024

The prolific presence of social media users has now triumphed past the 5 billion mark (5.04 billion) on the global stage, demonstrating the ever-mounting significance of online networking. This figure makes up 62.3 percent of the world's population, with the typical social media user spending 2 hours and 23 minutes each day engaging with their preferred social platforms, according to Digital 2024.

Digital 2024, the annual global report focusing on digital and social media trends, has been released through a partnership between global leader in media, social, and consumer intelligence, Meltwater and socially-led creative agency, We Are Social. The report, covering data points across the entire online ecosystem from gaming, smart devices and social commerce to social media, has indicated that all commercially concentrated social platforms have reported strong user growth year-on-year.

Over the past year, the seas of social media swell with the addition of 266 million users, accounting for an annual growth rate of 5.6 percent. Users are starting to diversify their online engagements, using an average of 6.7 platforms each month. A stark champion in terms of monthly usage time, TikTok boasts an average Android user spending a grand 34 hours per month, translating to more than an hour a day.

Regarding the world's most treasured social platform, Instagram, supplants last years victor, WhatsApp, attracting 16.5 percent of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64. The digital world appears to be shifting its gears, with the decline in traditional TV content watching reducing by 17 minutes per day, or 8.2 percent, year-on-year. Meanwhile, digital ad spend was up by 10 percent year-on-year, with an expenditure of almost $720 billion on digital ads in 2023, while social ad spend has reached USD $207 billion, an increase by 9.3 percent.

TikTok has seen its popularity rise as the platform now registers the highest average time per Android user of any social platform globally. Impressively, the platform records 34 hours per month or exceeds an hour daily use. Australia has also noted a surge in TikTok's monthly engagement, with an average of 42 hours and 13 minutes, placing it in the country rank of sixth. Furthermore, the hashtag #fyp (for your page) has garnered a staggering 55 trillion views, crowning it TikTok's most popular hashtag, according to the Digital 2024 report.

Expressing her intelligent insight, Alexandra Saab Bjertnæs, Chief Strategy Officer at Meltwater, accentuates the criticality of accentuating accurate narratives in the absence of unique voices in online conversations, especially with the mushrooming user base. Nathan McDonald, co-founder and group chief executive at We Are Social, also comments on the importance of being socially first to mould marketing strategies and how platforms serve marketers, offering novel, culturally resonating ways of engagement in the ever-diversifying digital world.