The most popular social networks – Kommersant

February 4 marks the 20th anniversary of the launch of Facebook (owned by Meta, a company recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation). Originally intended as a social platform for students, it became publicly available in 2006. In December 2009, having reached With 350 million registered users and a monthly audience of 132 million unique users, the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg has become the most popular social network in the world. In 2023, its monthly audience exceeded 3 billion people for the first time.

Many other popular social networks of that time left the scene, unable to withstand the competition. MySpace, the recognized leader of the mid-2000s, lost its users. Another popular project, Friendster, turned into a gaming platform and was later closed. Google’s projects, Orkut (in 2014) and Google+ (in 2019), ceased operation. They were replaced by other favorites.

By estimates analysts of the consulting agency Kepios, the global audience of social platforms continues to grow and currently exceeds 5 billion users (more than half of the world’s population). On average, they spend 2 hours and 23 minutes a day on social media and use about 6 social platforms per month. Moreover, users most often open WhatsApp, and spend the longest time on TikTok and YouTube. Users most often name Instagram (owned by Meta, a company recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) as their favorite social network.