It’s only been 10 years but it feels like a lifetime.
Twitter has been around for a decade. I joined in 2008 and had no clue about what to do with it or where it was going but loved its simplicity. Somehow it worked.
Then I signed up to every new social media network that appeared. Pinterest looked promising, Instagram was exciting and Google+ was put on the map. But it didn’t deliver.
It was my new sand pit. Playing was compulsory and being serious was optional.
Today Snapchat is a social media upstart that has emerged late in the game. It resonated at first with teenagers and its disappearing photos that the grownups dismissed as a passing fad. But it’s shaking up the status quo. We are now are just starting to grasp its potential.
The reality is that the social media marketplace is continuing to mature. Its also hard to know what will work and what won’t. As marketers we need to keep throwing mud at the wall and see what sticks. Sometimes we are surprised.
The wild west of free social networks and apps, cheap marketing tools and few rules is evolving into a grownup industry. It has some big implications for business, users and the the web. And the social media facts keep changing.
It is powering how we play, work and market. The reality is that it has just begun.
How does a new industry grow up?
The maturing of any industry has some common historical trends. Here are 3 that come to mind.
Consolidation
Any fast growing industry explodes onto the scene with a myriad of start-ups and then the game gets serious. The fastest growing companies with cash start buying strategic startups that allow them to accelerate and dominate an industry without having to build it themselves.
Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion, WhatsApp for $19 billion and the virtual reality startup Occulus Rift for $2 billion. Linkedin also bought Slideshare then Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26.2 billion.
Building it yourself even when you have bucketloads of cash doesn’t always work. Google’s failed $550 million Google+ startup is evidence of that.
Where does this stop?
It won’t. But don’t expect that Microsoft buying Linkedin will make it better. News Ltd bought MySpace and we know how that ended. With a bit of luck Microsoft will leave LinkedIn alone like Facebook has done with Instagram.
Land grabs
Applications that are a singular focus like Periscope with video live streaming are often introduced as a feature on a bigger platform.
It doesn’t mean they will do it well because often there is lack of focus.
But “Facebook live” is looking like it has some real potential to slow the Periscopes and the Meerkats of this world.
Open to closed
Tim Wiu (a professor from Columbia University) has some sobering insights on the patterns of the great information empires of the 20th century in his book “Master Switch – The Rise and fall of Information Empires“.
“Each major new medium, from telephone to satellite television, has crested on a wave of similar idealistic optimism, before succumbing to the inevitable undertow of industrial consolidation. Every once free and open technology has, in time, become centralized and closed; as corporate power has taken control of the ‘master switch.‘
The open range free for all that is a new communication industry often becomes a walled and controlled garden.
Does our current euphoria and the unfolding events in the social media industry in the 21st century sound familiar?
Where’s social going?
Even as social starts to consolidate there are some trends and exciting product directions that are emerging. Here are three that I find the most interesting.
1. Streaming live video
Streaming live video broke into our conciousness in early 2015 with Meerkat becoming a hot property until Twitter cut off its access to its API and launched its competing Periscope app after buying the company.
Now we are seeing the rise of “Facebook Live”, and even Tumblr teaming up with YouTube to support live video on its service.
There are also some exciting startups that are including live video streaming in its feature sets. One of these is the video marketing platform Twentythree.net
Infographic source: Socialmediatoday
2. Short lived content
Snapchat has caught many marketers flat footed as a marketing channel. Its high engagement metrics are starting to be noticed. Some insights on this: 35% of Facebook users upload photos every day while on Snapchat its 65%.
But the real power of engagement that brings users back everyday to Snapchat is its disappearing videos, images and messages.
Even Facebook has seen the future here and is about to launch a Snapchat style disappearing messages feature.
3. Virtual reality, social and mobile intersect
Virtual reality is still a promise and has been buried in the gaming niche. It’s now bubbling into the mainstream as the major social networks and media players start experimenting and launching hardware and apps.
But the explosion of the mobile app Pokemon Go has launched virtual reality into mainstream media press.
In just over 1 month since its launch it is creating some serious attention. Daily time spent by users is exceeding even Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter
Source: Techcrunch
This may see the start of virtual reality moving from niche to mainstream. Facebook has already seen this future with its purchase of the virtual reality company Occulus Rift over 2 years ago.
So what is the current state of social media? Here are some social media facts to ponder.
Social media facts from 10 different networks
Every now and then it’s worth looking at the current facts, cast our thoughts back to the past and ponder the future. Here are the latest facts that I could find about 10 of the top social media networks that as entrepreneurs. business owners and marketers we need to consider.
Snapchat facts
Snapchat was launched in September 2011 after Evan Spiegel presented it as class project at Stanford University while studying product design. It’s initial working title was “Picaboo” and was based on the concept of using images that were explicitly short-lived.
There are over 100 million active daily users
Snapchat users watch over 6 billion videos daily (remember they are only 10 seconds in length)
8,796 photos are shared every second
30% of media planners, agencies and brands plan to include Snapchat in their Super Bowl campaigns
65% of Snapchat users upload photos every day
76% of millennials use Snapchat
Infographic source: Stateofdigital.com
Facebook facts
Facebook has been with us since February 2004. It’s current valuation is $350 billion. It may become the world’s first trillion dollar company.
Facebook users now total 1.65 billion monthly users
823 million mobile only users
Net income for first quarter 2016 was $1.51 billion
Facebook’s current market value is $321 billion
It so far has spent over $25 billion buying competitors (Including Instagram, WhatsApp and the virtual reality company Occulus)
83% of parents on Facebook are friends with their children on Facebook
Facebook adds half a million new users every day
47% of all Internet users are on Facebook
4.5 billion likes are generated daily
Facebook takes up 22% of Internet time (compared to 11% for Google and YouTube combined)
Facebook has 19% of the $70 billion spent on global mobile advertising
78% of Facebook advertising revenue comes from mobile ads
Stats source: Brandwatch
Infographic source: Jaydeemedia
Instagram facts
Instagram has just hit half a billion users. The $1 billion paid for it it by Facebook in 2012 though seen as a possibly foolish at the time is is in hindsight now looking very wise and astute.
500 million monthly users
20% of all internet users are on Instagram
Average engagement on Instagram posts is 1.1%
91% of all Instagram posts are photos
90% of all Instagram users are younger than 35
41% of Instagram users are aged between 16 and 24
47% of Millenials use Instagram as a messaging app (compared to 50% for Facebook messenger)
One third of teenagers say Instagram is their most important social network
28% of Us users use Instagram
Instagram has doubled each year for the past 2 years
80 million photos are uploaded daily
Stats source: Expandedramblings, Maximizesocialbusiness
Infographic source: Maximizesocialbusiness
Twitter facts
Twitter is struggling but with over 300 million users it is still a social network worth taking seriously. As its timeline is still quite open the platform is often used as a metric to measure online influence.
It currently has 310 million monthly users
In 2015 it had revenue of $2.2 billion
Katy Perry has over 85 million followers on Twitter
The most retweeted tweet is the Oscar selfie by Ellen DeGeneres at 3.4 million times
500 million people view Twitter without logging in
1 billion people each month view sites with embedded tweets
200 billion tweets are sent every year
500 million tweets are sent each day
Donald Trump has 7 million followers on Twitter
Stats source: Entrepreneur, Wikipedia, Economictimes
Infographic source: Globalmediainsight.com
YouTube facts
YouTube is almost seen as a dinosaur on the modern social web (started on February 14, 2005) but the numbers show it’s a big dinosaur and still growing. Google’s acquisition in 2006 for $1.65 billion that seems insignificant with it now being valued around $80 billion.
YouTube has over 1.3 billion users
One third of the world’s Internet population use YouTube
Adele’s song “Hello” only took 5 days to reach 100 million views
In the USA YouTube reaches more 18-49 year olds than the cable networks
On mobile the average viewing time on YouTube is 40 minutes
More than 50% of all YouTube views are on mobile
You can use 76 different languages on YouTube
Growth in watch time is up over 50% year on year for the last 3 years
5 billion videos are watched every day
It costs $6.3 billion to open up the doors every year and keep YouTube running and maintained
PewDiePie is YouTube’s highest paid YouTube partner at $12.5 billion
Stats source: YouTube, FortuneLords, Makeuseof
Infographic source: Fortunelords
Flipboard facts
It is now six years since Flipboard launched and often not taken as seriously as it should be by digital and content marketers. I have been using it for 2 years and it sometimes drives more traffic than Facebook to my site.
How do I use it?
Created my own personal magazine and then “flip” the posts into it after publishing it on the blog.
Flipboard has approximately 90 million users
Flipboard doubled its monthly users from 40 million to 80 million in less than a year
JP Morgan led a $50 million funding round in Flipboard in 2014.
Flipboard’s total funding is $210.5 million
It is valued between $800 million and $1.32 billion
The top three user interests on Flipboard are Tech, news and design
Facts source: TechCrunch, Venturebeat
Infographic source: Flipboard.com
LinkedIn facts
LinkedIn has just been bought by Microsoft. It will be interesting to see how that affects its evolution and growth. But there is one thing you should keep in mind.
If you are an avid user of linkedIn and rely almost exclusively on it for leads and creating business relationships then be very careful that you don’t do this.
Put all your eggs in a basket you don’t own.
Linkedin has more than 433 million members worldwide
Over 25 million Linkedin profiles are viewed every day
First quarter revenue for 2016 was $861 million
Full year revenue for 2016 is projected to reach $3.7 billion
Microsoft bought Linkedin for $26.2 billion
9 percent growth year on year
105 million unique visiting members per month
60 percent mobile usage
45 billion quarterly member page views
101 percent annual growth every year with its job listing
There are more than 7 million active job listings
One in twenty Linkedin profiles belong to recruiters
One out of every three professionals on the planet are on LinkedIn
200 conversations per minute occur in LinkedIn groups
Statistics source: Udacity.com and LinkedIn
Infographic source: Remessaged
WhatsApp facts
WhatsApp began as a simple idea: Their mission? “Ensuring that anyone could stay in touch with family and friends anywhere on the planet, without costs or gimmicks standing in the way“.
It’s about the art of keeping it simple and minimalist. It worked.
WhatsApp started in 2009.
Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion
It now has over one billion users
1 million new users join every day
42 billion messages are sent every 24 hours
32% of millennials use Whatsapp globally
1.6 billion photos are shared daily
250 million video messages are sent a day
There are over 1 billion groups on Whatsapp
57 engineers are employed by the company
Source of stats: Whatsapp, Expandedramblings
Infographic source: Metro.co.uk
Pinterest facts
Pinterest is not a big viral network but it should not be ignored. It is great for targeting a female demographic and a target market in anything visual.
This includes design, photography, fashion and food as starters.
Pinterest has 100 million users
It is valued at $11 billion
85% of Pinterest users are female
Each pin is repinned on average 10 times
Pinterest pins drive 4 website traffic hits
Users spend an average of 15 minutes on Pinterest per visit
75% of Pintetest traffic comes from mobile apps
Images with 50% colour saturation get shared 10x more than black and white images
Red or orange images get shared 200% more than other colors
Stats sources: Letstalksocial.com, Expandedramblings.com, Likeable.com
Infographic source: Dlvrit.com
Periscope facts
Periscope is now a Twitter company and maybe its best acquisition to date. But Facebook Live is now a big potential threat. Watch this space.
Last reported number of users was 10 million in mid 2015
Periscope has given birth to more than 200 million live broadcasts
Twitter paid $87 million for Periscope in 2015
There are 10 million accounts on the Periscope mobile app.
75% of Periscope users are between the age of 16 and 34
The USA House Democrats sit-in was viewed 1 million times on Periscope
It streams 110 years worth of video every day
Stats sources: Expandedramblings,
Infographic source: Adweek.com
Wrapping it up
How have your social media habits changed over the years? What are you using today? What social networks and media are you intending to use or test in the next 12 months. What’s not working for you now that worked in the past.
Look forward to your feedback and insights in the comments below.