Social Media Facts and Statistics for 2013 – Updated

According to a GlobalWebIndex study it is:

1. Mobile – with the number of people accessing the internet via a mobile phone increasing by 60.3% to 818.4 million in the last 2 years.
2. Older users adoption – On Twitter the 55-64 year age bracket is the fastest growing demographic with 79% growth rate since 2012. The fastest growing demographic on Facebook’s and Google+’s networks are the 45 to 54 year age bracket at 46% and 56% respectively.

These 2 key factors are keeping the social web bubbling along. So maybe the reason your grandparents aren’t turning up to that dinner party is that they have now discovered Facebook and Twitter!

Facebook continues to grow and work out how to make money from its ads and mobile users. Here are the latest facts and figures from its earnings call for the first quarter of 2013

• Daily active users have reached 665 million
• Monthly active users have passed 1.1 billion for the first time
• 751 million mobile users access Facebook every month
• Mobile only active users total 189 million
• Mobile now generates 30% of its ad revenue up from 23% at the end of 2012

Twitter

• 44% growth from  June 2012 to March 2013
• 288 million monthly active users
• That means that 21% of the world’s internet population are using Twitter every month
• Over 500 million registered accounts
• Twitter’s fastest growing age demographic is 55 to 64 year olds, registering an increase in active users of 79%

YouTube

• 1 billion unique monthly visitors
• 6 billion hours of videos are watched every month
• This means that 50% more hours of video are watched in March 2013 compared to last August when it was 4 billion hours a month and last May when it was 3 billion.
• YouTube reaches more U.S. adults ages 18-34 than any cable network

Here are some of the latest social media facts and statistics provided by the latest study by GlobalWebIndex for the second quarter of 2013:

1. Active usage of the major, global social platforms is growing worldwide with mobile being the key driver
2. Google+ remains the second most actively used social network with 318.4 million active users in 31 markets
3. Emerging platforms have experienced notable growth in popularity since Q2 2012 with Pinterest and Tumblr being currently the fastest growing global social media
4. Facebook maintains the highest penetration of active users among account owners at 62% globally. This compares to 51% for Twitter and 44% for Google+
5. Emerging markets remain more active on social networks compared with developed countries. In Q2 2013 South Africa had the highest proportion of active Facebook users: 68%.
6. Mobile and tablet usage is beginning to heavily impact social media usage with mobile having the biggest effect on Twitter which is used by 94 million active Twitter to share photos compared to 140 million on PC. This is the highest proportion of mobile vs. PC photos sharing of any social network