Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is still leading the social media market and the company is still growing! A new study from Pew Research Center shows over half (about 73%) of adult internet users over the age of 18 use one social network and 71% of that group prefers Facebook. The other platforms including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest are growing, and another growing number use two or more of the popular social networks.
Older people are joining Facebook
The fastest growing age group signing up on Facebook is the 65+ group. Last year, 35% of this group identified as Facebook users but this year it’s 45%. Young adults are losing interest in the popular social media website but not by much. 86% of 18-to-29 year-olds were Facebook users last year; this year that number dropped to 84%.
Although Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) reigns supreme in the battle of social networks, the company is facing some competition from their very own Instagram, which rose 17% from 13% last year. Not surprisingly, this image-sharing based social media app is most popular with the Millennial crowd (much of the growth came from 18 to 29 age group). It’s also popular with African Americans.
Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR), the microblogging website that enjoys a huge level of success, is also popular with both groups.
Engagement levels are key
Pew’s study also discovered both Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Instagram have high levels of user engagement. This means that they have a lot of users checking in the websites every day. In fact, 63% of users visit Facebook at least once a day and 40% visit multiple times a day. This is quite comparable to 57% of Instagram users and 46% of Twitter users who visit respective websites once a day.
This Pew study was taken from August 7th to September 16th via telephone interviews. The study was comprised of 1,801 adults 18 and over. There is a margin of error which is estimated at 2.9 points for internet users and 2.6 percentage points.
