Social media users lap up brands as privacy fears recede

Social media might be the bane of many people’s lives but those users just keep on coming – and half of all adult users now visit platforms to learn more about brands – while adspend has increased significantly across digital, social and influencer and concerns over data privacy have taken a back seat.

According to the Digital 2025 report from We Are Social and Meltwater, there are now 5.24 billion global social media user identities (some people have more than one account), an increase of 136 million new users (4.1%) over the past 12 months.

Meanwhile, the typical Internet user spends 2 hours and 21 minutes using social media each day.

And, crucially for marketers, half of all adult social media users now visit social platforms with the intention of learning more about brands; a figure that has steadily increased over the last year.

Instagram tops the research charts, with 62.3% of its adult users researching brands on the platform. Facebook ranks second, (52.5%) with TikTok third (51.5%).

Digital 2025 also shows that 22% of active social media users follow influencers or other experts on social channels. However, this figure jumps to 30.8% for women aged 16 to 24.

Interestingly, popularity and use do not match.YouTube was the ‘most used’ social media platform, with an active user base 16% larger than second placed WhatsApp; Facebook, Instagram and TikTok make up the top five.

When it comes to the world’s ‘favourite’ social platform, Instagram tops the charts, with 16.6% of social media users pledging their allegiance. WhatsApp ranks second with 16%, while Facebook comes in third, with 13.1%.

However, TikTok is on the rise; its Android user base spent almost 35 hours using the platform’s app in November 2024; the average monthly time that the typical TikTok user spends using the platform’s Android app increased by almost two hours between August and November. The 6.6 billion TikToks tagged with “#FYP” attracted an incremental 24 trillion views in 2024 alone.

Meanwhile, the number of connected adults expressing concern about their online privacy is declining. Fewer than 3 in 10 adult Internet users say that they are worried about how companies use their personal data online today, with that figure down by 7.1% compared on 2023.

When it comes to breakthrough platforms, Threads now has 320 million monthly active users, of which more than 100 million are active each day, and topped the ‘active user growth’ rankings at the end of 2024. Bluesky has attracted more than 30 million registered users, but data.ai reported that the app still had fewer than 25 million monthly active users at the end of November 2024.

The increasing importance of digital in the advertising landscape is reflected in adspend figures. Marketers spent US$1.1trillion (£880bn) on ads in 2024, with global spend increasing by $75bn (£60bn) – 7.3% – compared to 2023. Digital channels now account for 72.7% of worldwide ad investment, with online spend exceeding $790bn (£630bn) last year; a year-on-year increase of 10.3%. In fact, digital adspend has more than doubled since 2019.

Within the digital landscape, social media adspend has increased to $243bn (£194bn), a 15% rise year-on-year. And brands’ continued interest in influencer marketing is clear, with a 14% increase in global influencer marketing spend year-on-year and annual influencer investment now at $35bn (£28bn).

Digital 2025’s app data showcases the rising interest in, and use of, AI. ChatGPT tops the AI leaderboard, with its mobile app averaging more than a quarter of a billion monthly active users between September and November 2024.

It was also one of the world’s most downloaded apps during that period, placing eighth in data.ai’s global ranking across all app categories. Data also shows that ChatGPT.com had an average of 310 million unique monthly visitors between September and November, who generated a combined 3.5 billion visits to the platform’s dotcom domain.

Other key social media highlights from the report include the finding that social audiences use 6.83 platforms per month on average; more than 1 in 3 active social media users say that they use social platforms for work-related activities; 23.6% of adult social media users now say that finding content related to sports is one of the main reasons why they visit social platforms; and LinkedIn’s global ad reach has increased by a hefty 17% over the past year, and Pinterest reported ad reach grew by more than 10% in 2024.

We Are Social global group CEO Toby Southgate said: “Social is where brands can win or lose – it’s central to brand discovery, consumer engagement, and commerce. At the same time, AI is revolutionising how we search, create, and interact, while influencers continue to shape content trends and consumer behaviours.

“The opportunities for marketers to drive meaningful engagement have never been broader, but the complexity of digital and social media means there’s no single route to success. To create effective work, brands need to understand the cultural nuances of the online world, and create ideas worth talking about. Those who do will make an impact.”

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