Facebook dominates most popular social media apps [2022]

The penetration of social media apps is constantly increasing across all regions as it is one of the most popular digital activities worldwide.

In the current day and age, we spend half of our digital lives using applications on our smartphones. The human desire for social connection is fully exploited by the social media apps. You are only an alert or notification away from diverting your attention towards a new follower or juicy content.

The social media apps have become the primary way of discovering information online for most of the users. In addition, the social media apps enable the users to connect with their family and friends in many languages and across the world without any economic, geographic, or political border. In 2022, Social networking sites are estimated to reach 3.96 billion users and these figures are still expected to grow as mobile device usage and mobile social networks increasingly gain traction in previously underserved markets.

According to the report published by statista, market leader Facebook reported more than 3.58 billion users were using at least one of the company’s core products (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Messenger) in the third quarter of 2021. Facebook core app currently sits at more than 2.89 billion monthly active users.

The history of Facebook and acquisitions

Back in 2005, AboutFace sold the “facebook.com” domain to The Facebook for $200,000. Later on, Facebook ended up dropping “The” from its name and completely changed the site to make profile changes more useful. After series of small acquisition and purchasing FB.com, Facebook made its third most expensive acquisition with Instagram for ~$1 Billion back in 2012, which was the same year when Facebook held its initial public offering (IPO). Facebook made its largest acquisition to date in 2014 with purchase of mobile messaging giant WhatsApp for staggering $19 Billion. Later in 2014, Facebook also acquired Oculus VR for $2.3 Billion. In 2021, Facebook rebranded itself with a new name Meta (Greek for “beyond”) and blue infinity symbol-like logo, which is a part of the company’s plan to focus on the “metaverse”.

Facebook has had only one CEO Mark Zuckerberg since 2004. After the initial public offering in 2012, Facebook’s stock has gone from ~50 USD to ~225 USD in 2022. Facebook has acquired almost 54 companies based in the United States and majority of them were acquired after 2010. TikTok and Snapchat continue to be one of Facebook’s biggest competitors. In 2013, Snapchat turned down a $3 Billion offer from Facebook and it wasn’t the only time Facebook has tried to buy Snapchat.

Most popular social media networks worldwide – Jan 2022

What makes Facebook the most dominant social media firm

• Facebook was the first social network to surpass one billion registered accounts and
• Facebook has invested over $23 Billion in acquisitions over the last 10-plus years in making an experience where everyone can find their value on the platform.
• Facebook was one of the first social media platforms to gain success and it has collected a lot of information about their users to customize their experience on Facebook.
• Facebook is really good at learning about their users and using that data to make a news feed of information that people find valuable.
• Facebook really created the news feed, and it’s a feature that every social app in the world has come to adopt. Prior to its release of the news feed in 2006, Facebook simply had profiles, and you visited a specific person’s profile to view information.

The social media platforms from United States and China are the most popular

Over the years, the social media networks with more than 100 million users have originated from United States. However, Chinese social media giants have also managed to penetrated into the mainstream with services like WeChat, QQ or video sharing app Douyin. You might recognize Douyin from an international version of the network called TikTok, whose popularity has made it the fourth most popular social media app in the world.

Source: Statista