59.4% of the world’s population uses social networks and the incorporation of AI into the sector will be key in the future. They are two of the most prominent conclusions of the report Redes sociales: estado actual y tendencias 202 3, directed by Professor Santiago Giménez and published by the OBS Business School to provide a complete and up-to-date view of the world of social networks and its impact on different aspects of society.
Yes or no 5,160 million people have an internet connection, of which 4,760 million are users of social networks (94.9% of the internet population). This figure grows by 3% annually and already represents 59.4% of the world’s population. Most users are in Western countries and Asia. In fact, northern Europe is the area that makes the most use of it, with 83.6% of internet users); Central and Western Europe, 83.3%, and North America, 73.9%. 53.7% of network users are men, while 46.3% are women, and the vast majority are between 20 and 39 years old.
The average daily time spent on social media is two hours and 31 minutes and is clearly increasing, although the statistics change according to age and gender: women aged 16 to 24 lead the daily use of social networks with an average of three hours and 11 minutes per day.
However, YouTube is quickly closing the gap with twice as much audience growth (2.51 billion active users). The third most used platform is WhatsApp, followed by Instagram, whose audience has increased by more than 35.3% (522 million users). TikTok also has 5.1% more users than last year, a rapid rise that is due to its popularity among millennials and Gen Z. However, it is a network under the microscope of different countries because of the large amount of data it accumulates, something that, in the hands of certain countries, could be a problem.
The report also notes that social networks attract 42% of traffic to e-commerce and 17% of purchases are made through networks. For this reason, the trend is to integrate e-commerce functions into the same network to allow users to buy products without having to access other sites.
Other trends are the publishing of ephemeral content, the growing use of video, personalization and the integration of augmented reality filters.
But, without a doubt, the change that will most mark networks in the future will be the incorporation of artificial intelligence, especially for customer service and interaction with users. AI systems are expected to be able to generate content autonomously, which would have a significant impact on content production and how it is consumed.
