Here is the ranking of the most popular social networks / social media in terms of number of active users. An active user is defined as a registered user who is active at least once a month on the site or mobile application and not just a “member” or “registered user”.
1. Facebook – 2.498 billion users
Founded in 2004, Facebook was launched by Mark Zuckerberg and his Harvard University classmates. The world’s undisputed social network allows users to exchange and share photos, videos, files and documents with other users, while offering a multitude of other features through a range of applications.
As of April 2020, Facebook has 2.498 billion users worldwide.
2. YouTube – 2 billion users
Created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees, YouTube is the first video hosting platform in the world that is also becoming a social media allowing users to publish, watch, like, comment or share videos via the platform. In addition, in October 2006, YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion.
In April 2020, YouTube had 2 billion users worldwide.
3. WhatsApp – 2 billion users
WhatsApp is a mobile application for encrypted instant messaging over the Internet and mobile networks. The application was founded in 2009 by two Yahoo alumni and was a huge success before being acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for approximately $19 billion. Today, Will Cathcart is president of WhatsApp Messenger.
As of April 2020, WhatsApp Messenger has 2 billion users worldwide.
4. Facebook Messenger – 1.3 billion users
Like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger is an instant messaging platform directly integrated with Facebook, whether online on the desktop or as a mobile application. Launched in 2014, Facebook Messenger allows users to exchange instantly without having to go through the social network. In fact, since July 2015, the Facebook mobile application has automatically redirected messaging to the Facebook Messenger application, which has also become accessible without a Facebook account but only via a registration with a phone number.
In April 2020, Facebook Messenger had 1.300 million users worldwide.
5. Wechat – 1.165 billion users
Wechat (or Weixin in China) is a mobile Chinese text and voice messaging application developed by Tencent Holdings Limited in 2013. Very popular in China, the application has many features such as photo exchange, communication via audio and video conferencing, mobile payment, geolocation, reading QR codes, access to a microblog and emoticon management service, …
As of April 2020, Wechat has 1.165 million users worldwide.
6. Instagram – 1 billion users
Founded in October 2010, Instagram is an application and social network that allows users to share photos and videos with each other, to like, comment on and share them, and to instantly exchange with “Instagram direct”. In April 2012, Instagram was acquired by Facebook for approximately one billion dollars, and became available via the mobile application or via the website on the desktop but with limited functionality.
As of April 2020, Instagram has 1,000 million users worldwide.
7. TikTok – 800 million users
Developed and launched in September 2016 by ByteDance and Zhang Yiming, Tik Tok (also called Douyin) is a mobile application for video sharing (music clips, …) and social networking. The particularity of TikTok lies in the possibility for users to film and edit their own video and directly on the application, thanks to the many features (music, effects, …).
TikTok brings together one of the largest communities thanks to the acquisition of Musical.ly, a similar application, by ByteDance in November 2017 for about one billion dollars. This acquisition allowed the merger between TikTok and Musical.ly while keeping the original name of TikTok.
As of April 2020, TikTok has 800 million users worldwide.
8. QQ – 731 million users
Launched in February 1999 by the Tencent Group, QQ is an instant messaging platform. In fact, it is the most widely used platform in China behind WeChat, thanks in particular to QQ’s expansion beyond messaging (games, pets, downloadable music and other applications). However, the use of the QQ application is very restricted outside China (except in South Africa), and is limited to communication with people in China (expatriates, international students, people studying Chinese, …).
As of April 2020, QQ has 731 million users worldwide.
9. QZone – 517 million users
After launching QQ, the Chinese group Tencent founded QZone in 2005, a blogging platform that allows users to create and maintain a blog or journal by writing articles daily, with a social networking aspect through sharing photos, listening to music and watching videos. QZone is an extension of the first QQ social network.
As of April 2020, QZone has 517 million users worldwide.
10. Sina Weibo – 516 million users
Considered the Chinese Twitter, Sina Weibo was launched in 2009 by the Sina Corporation. It is a micro-blogging social network allowing each user to publish and broadcast personal content. In addition, users can find out what’s new, follow and react to various debates and news topics with the community. It is for this reason that Sina Weibo is considered a hybrid between Facebook and Twitter (limited number of characters for messages, use of hashags (example: #hashtag#), possibility to like content and to challenge users by mentioning them with the @).
In April 2020, Sina Weibo counts 516 million users worldwide.
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