Social media use during COVID-19 worldwide - statistics & facts

Major players’ growth rates

With billions of people around the world spending more time at home, socially distancing, and trying to come up with ways to stay in touch despite lockdowns, all leading social platforms seemed to thrive and reported monthly active usage growth in 2021 compared to 2019. Monthly user numbers of the biggest 2020 trend, TikTok, increased the most, at 38 percent over the evaluated period. Pinterest came in second, followed by Reddit. Nevertheless, good old players such as Facebook and Twitter also saw significant growth rates.

What is social media used for in pandemic times?

Many tasks can be performed on social platforms and users resort to them for different reasons. Coronavirus times only underlined the diversity of social media. Generally received as democratic and organic virtual outlets, social media were among the leading sources of reliable information for updates on the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Overall, keeping track of news and information has been important to social media users throughout the pandemic. While updates on the virus itself seemed to be in high demand at the start of 2020, as of January 2021, information about vaccines was the most sought piece of information.

Social interaction and entertainment

Another major purpose of using social platforms has been social interaction. During a 2020 survey in the United States, it was found that socializing with friends and family virtually during the pandemic was very common among all age groups. Whether for personal, professional, or academic reasons, videoconferencing services boomed, and nearly 48 percent of interviewed U.S. adults stated to have used FaceTime in 2020. The online dating industry also benefited in 2020, and the most common dating site by average monthly visits was Badoo. When it comes to entertainment, video consumption came to the rescue. Short-form videos generated tons of traffic, with TikTok topping many rankings and hitting new records, especially among teenagers and young adults.

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