25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

DIGITAL 2024 OCTOBER

GLOBAL STATSHOT REPORT
23 OCTOBER 2024 · SIMON KEMP

ADVERTISEMENT

Washing MachineTop Load LED UHD/4K Smart TV - 43

Fully Automatic - 6KG
₹659 ₹948

Semi Automatic Washing Refrigerator 190L and Was

Machine Machine Top Load 6KG Co
₹399 ₹1,069

Fur

2024 has been a year packed with impressive

digital milestones, and that trend shows no signs
of slowing as we enter the final quarter of the year.

As we’ll explore in detail in this extensive analysis,

our new Digital 2024 October Global Statshot
Report – published in partnership between We
Are Social and Meltwater – has big new numbers
for overall digital adoption, for some of the world’s
top social media platforms, and for various
connected behaviours.

Top stories in this quarter’s update to our Global

Digital Reports series include:

Internet users have passed the 5½ billion mark

ChatGPT is delivering a variety of impressive

numbers

Social media time dips, but adoption

accelerates

Rivalries between Instagram and TikTok reach

new levels
A host of impressive numbers for Threads,
Telegram, and Snapchat
AD
A closer look atsave
Students what’s65%
been on
happening at X
Creative Cloud All Apps. Buy now
First year only.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 1/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

The rise of social search when researching

brands
QR codes finally have something to celebrate

That’s only a teaser of what that you’ll find in this

quarter’s full report though, and this latest edition of
our Global Digital Reports series is packed with
loads more data, insights, and surprises.

ADVERTISEMENT

The ultimate collection of

digital data
This quarter’s reports feature an exceptional wealth
of data and insight, thanks to the support and
generosity of our wonderful data partners:

GWI

data.ai (a Sensor Tower company)

Similarweb
Semrush

GSMA Intelligence

Ookla

Skai

Locowise

SocialInsider

Statista

PPRO

Content authenticity

All of this analysis was written by a human, without

AD
the use of generative AI [click here to learn why
this matters]. Let’s connect on LinkedIn.

⚠️
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 2/67
 ⚠️ Important notes
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Please note the following before you dive into this

latest round of data:

1. The United Nations published a

comprehensive update to its World Population
Prospects data in recent weeks, and this
update included some important revisions to
population numbers around the world. In
addition to impacting the figures that we report
for population, these revisions may also affect
any data point where we show digital
adoption or activity as a percentage of the
total population (e.g. internet and social media
adoption), or as a percentage of a specific
age group within the broader population (e.g.
people aged 18 and above). As a
consequence, any comparisons with
equivalent data points published in the Global
Digital Reports series prior to the current
October 2024 report may result in unexpected
trends, including apparent decreases in user
figures or activity. However, any such change
may be solely the result of changes in (and
revisions to) underlying population data, and
may not necessarily indicate any change in
actual digital adoption or behaviour. As a
result, we advise significant caution when
interpreting any changes in values that show
digital adoption or activity as a percentage of
the population. For more details, please see
our comprehensive notes on data.

2. The growth in X’s published ad reach between

July 2024 and October 2024 is surprisingly
similar across almost all countries, with 222
out of 231 included territories seeing a growth
rate of between +0.7% and +0.8%. Our
analysis of third-party data suggests that these
changes in X’s own ad reach figures may not
accurately represent changes in X use over
time, so we advise significant caution when
interpreting X’s latest ad reach data.

AD The complete Digital 2024

October Global Statshot
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 3/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Report
You’ll find this quarter’s main report in the embed
below (click here if that’s not working for you), but
read on past that to explore my in-depth analysis of
what all these numbers actually mean for you and
your work.

ADVERTISEMENT

Ad removed. Details

Cookies & Privacy

Cookies help us understand your nee
ds, enabling us to create better conte
nt.

Reject Accept

The global state of digital in

October 2024
Let’s start by exploring the latest headlines for
digital adoption and use around the world:

The United Nations’ latest population data

points to a total of 8.18 billion humans living
on Earth today. That figure has grown by 70
million people (+0.9 percent) since October
2023, and 58 percent of the total population
now lives in urban areas.

5.75 billion people now use a mobile phone,

equating to 70.3 percent of the world’s total
population. The global user total has grown by
119 million over the past 12 months,
delivering year-on-year growth of 2.1
AD
percent. Meanwhile, data shows that
smartphones now account for more than 85

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 4/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

percent of the mobile handsets in use around

the world.

A total of 5.52 billion people were using the

internet at the start of October 2024, equating
to 67.5 percent global internet penetration.
Internet users have increased by 151 million
(+2.8 percent) over the past 12 months, but a
total of 2.66 billion people remain offline as
we enter the last three months of 2024.

Kepios’s latest analysis puts global social

media user identities at 5.22 billion, with that
figure equating to 63.8 percent of all the
people on Earth. The global total has
increased by more than 5 percent over the
past year, thanks to the addition of 256
million new user identities [but note that “user
identities” may not represent unique
individuals].

Internet use reaches another

big milestone
Kepios analysis indicates that more than 5½
billion people around the world are using the
internet in October 2024.

This figure reflects the latest data from a number of

reputable sources, including internet adoption
figures from the ITU and local regulatory
authorities, mobile internet subscriber data from
GSMA Intelligence, survey data from Eurostat,
and user data from a variety of digital platforms.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 5/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Trends in this data indicate that digital adoption

continues to grow too, albeit at a somewhat slower
pace than we’ve seen in recent reports.

The current user total has increased by 2.8 percent

since this time last year, although it’s worth noting
that recent revisions to the United Nations’ world
population data (as detailed above) may have
impacted this growth figure.

For perspective, data indicate that internet users

grew slightly faster – by 2.9 percent – between
October 2022 and October 2023, while the figure
for the previous year (2021 to 2022) was almost
double the current figure, at 5.5 percent.

Nonetheless, these latest numbers indicate that

more than 151 million people came online for the
first time over the past 12 months, at an average
rate of 4.8 new users every second.

Moreover, the complexities of collecting internet

user data mean that the most recent figures often
under-represent actual internet adoption, so we
expect to see an upward “correction” in these latest
growth figures as more data becomes available
over the coming months.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 6/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

ADVERTISEMENT

Learn from Top IIT Faculty

1:1 with Industry Mentors and 24X7 Support for Doubt Resolutions & Technical
Queries.

Inte

Meanwhile, internet penetration (i.e. internet users

as a percentage of total population) has increased
by a relative 1.9 percent over the past year.

That growth is encouraging, but – similar to the

trends we saw above – this latest increase is slightly
below the 2.0 percent figure that we saw for growth
between October 2022 and October 2023.

Note that growth in the user total is partly fuelled by

an increase in total population (i.e. there are more
people in the world today than there were this time
last year), which explains why the user total
appears to be growing at a faster rate than the
penetration figure.

Please also be aware that we regularly revise our

historical internet user data, so the figures you see
on these charts likely won’t match or correlate with
figures that we published in previous updates to the
Global Digital Reports series.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 7/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Second only to sleep

Turning our attention to internet behaviours, the

latest research from GWI reveals that the typical
internet user now spends 6 hours and 36
minutes per day online.

This “connected time” includes a variety of activities

– from watching Netflix and listening to Spotify, to
online shopping and work-related activities – but
this diversity doesn’t detract from the gravity of this
finding.

Indeed, this daily average means that we now

spend a total of more than 46 hours using the
internet each week, which is 15 percent more
than more than a “typical” working week of 40
hours.

For perspective, the latest research from YouGov

indicates that most people sleep for between 7 and
8 hours a day, so GWI’s latest figures for daily
internet activity suggest that people spend roughly
40 percent of their waking lives online.

In other words, for many people, connected

activities account for the greatest “share of life”
after sleep.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 8/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Mobile internet use reaches

new heights
Despite already being our most-used devices,
mobile phones continue to play an ever more
important role in our connected lives.

The latest data from Statcounter shows that

mobiles now account for more than 60 percent of
global web traffic, after a somewhat unexpected
dip in share towards the end of last year.

Mobile’s share of global web traffic has remained

above 60 percent since May of this year, and even
surpassed 62 percent in August 2024, before
flipping back slightly in September.

It’s not unusual to see meaningful fluctuations in

these share figures over time, but the overall trends
point to mobile’s steadily increasing dominance.

Nevertheless, Statcounter’s data shows that some

countries are still heavily reliant on computers when
AD
it comes to web activity.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 9/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

For example, mobile devices account for less than

30 percent of web traffic in Denmark, and mobiles
are also a clear second choice in Switzerland,
Japan, and Sweden.

Reassuringly, this Statcounter data echoes trends we

see in GWI’s research, which finds that people in
Japan and Denmark are amongst the least likely to
use mobile devices to go online, together with
people in Canada and the UK.

Similarly, GWI’s data shows that mobiles account

for less than half of connected time across all four of
these countries.

ADVERTISEMENT

Speedy cellular

The case for mobile internet is increasingly

compelling however, especially with the latest
Speedtest data from Ookla showing that the
median speed of mobile internet connections
continues to increase.

For clarity, these figures refer to the speed of

cellular data networks, and do not include WiFi
access on mobile devices.

At a worldwide level, the typical mobile user now

enjoys download speeds of 55.8 Mbps, with that
figure jumping by almost 30 percent since this time
last year.
AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 10/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Impressively, users in a total of 17 countries now

enjoy median mobile download speeds in excess of
100 Mbps, while figures in the UAE and Qatar look
set to break the 400 Mbps mark in the next few
months.

However, users in various countries still struggle

with “laggy” connections, with Ookla reporting that
median download speeds remain below 10 Mbps
in both Yemen and Afghanistan.

Users in Latin America often contend with slow

connections too, with median cellular bandwidth
still stuck below 20 Mbps in Bolivia, Venezuela,
Colombia, and Paraguay.

Mobile isn’t necessarily an “inferior” choice though,

and mobile connections now outpace fixed internet
speeds in a total of 34 countries around the world,
with users in Suriname experiencing the greatest
gap in favour of cellular data connections.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 11/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

ADVERTISEMENT

0% on Creative
Apps.

ChatGPT charges ahead

The latest intelligence from data.ai reveals that use
of the ChatGPT mobile app has surged over recent
weeks, with the app ranking amongst the top ten
“breakout” apps by monthly active users between
June and August 2024.

“Breakout apps” are those that delivered the largest

absolute increases in the relevant metric during the
analysis period, so this data provides clear
evidence that ChatGPT continues to gain solid
momentum, nearly two years after its public launch.

It’s worth highlighting that TikTok and Instagram

both added more active users during this same
three-month period, but the fact that ChatGPT ranks
alongside apps of that size will be particularly
encouraging for the OpenAI team.

ChatGPT also placed tenth in data.ai’s ranking of

the biggest gainers by download volume, so there’s
every chance that we’ll see those active user figures
AD
continue to grow over the coming months too.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 12/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

But it’s not just data.ai’s figures that point to

sustained ChatGPT growth.

Similarweb’s data shows that more than a

quarter of a billion unique visitors went to
ChatGPT.com each month between June and
August, resulting in an average of 2.5 billion total
site visits per month.

Trends over time look encouraging too, with

Similarweb reporting that worldwide site traffic
increased by 8 percent between July and August
2024.

Meanwhile, Semrush reports even higher figures,

with unique visitor numbers at 392 million for
August 2024, and total site visits at 3.1 billion.

Semrush’s growth figures for ChatGPT.com are more

modest though, with the traffic analysts reporting an
increase of just over 3 percent between July and
August 2024.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 13/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

ADVERTISEMENT

CashGPT

However, user figures aren’t the only ChatGPT

metrics catching our attention this quarter.

data.ai’s breakout tables also show that ChatGPT

was one of the top three gainers in terms of
consumer spend on non-game apps between June
and August 2024, and the company’s app now
ranks amongst the world’s top 20 revenue-earning
non-game apps.

Those revenue figures have grown quickly too, with

data.ai’s figures pointing to quarterly growth of
more than 60 percent.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 14/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

For perspective, the levels of consumer spend are

still modest for a company that is now valued at
close to USD $160 billion, but consumer in-app
revenues only represent a tiny fraction of the
ChatGPT opportunity, especially when compared
with potential enterprise sales.

Indeed, The Information reports that OpenAI was

already earning USD $3.4 billion in annualised
revenue just a few months ago, with the company’s
run-rate doubling from the figure it reported just a
few months prior.

Nevertheless, the fact that individuals are already

spending tens of millions of dollars per month to use
ChatGPT’s premium services on their mobile devices
is testament to the momentum that the platform has
gained.

Multiple choice

But ChatGPT isn’t the only AI service that’s been

gaining momentum over recent weeks, even if the
available data suggest that it’s still the clear leader.

The same data.ai “breakout” dataset shows that

Google Gemini was one of the top three gainers in
terms of app downloads between June and August
2024, while Character.AI was one of the top
gainers in terms of total time spent.

However, data suggest that ChatGPT’s mobile app

now has roughly 10 times as many monthly active
users as Google Gemini’s mobile app, and almost
11 times as many as Microsoft Copilot.
AD
Having said that, both Gemini and Copilot are
integrated into their respective parent company’s

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 15/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

broader services (e.g. Gmail and Microsoft Office,

respectively), so comparing mobile app use
perhaps doesn’t offer the most representative insight
into the adoption of these services.

Indeed, even when it comes to standalone services,

data suggests that people are more likely to use AI
platforms in a web browser than they are to use the
equivalent mobile app.

ChatGPT remains the clear leader on the web too

though, with Similarweb’s data suggesting that
chatgpt.com has almost five times as many unique
monthly visitors as gemini.google.com, and more
than 25 times as many unique monthly visitors as
copilot.microsoft.com, perplexity.ai, and claude.ai.

A whole new game

These AI adoption and use figures make for

interesting reading, but it’s essential to highlight that
– in many cases – AI is more of an underlying
technology, and less of a “destination” in the way
that platforms like YouTube and Facebook are.

Of course, marketers will still want to keep an eye

on adoption and use figures to understand where
trends are headed, especially when it comes to
services like Perplexity AI, which may reshape
online search.

However, given the ways in which people and

businesses use AI services, these technologies likely
require a different set of measurement metrics to
social media platforms and video streaming
AD services.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 16/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Vietnam enters the 100

million club
The United Nations’ recently revised data shows
that Vietnam is now home to more than 100
million people, making it the sixteenth country to
reach a nine-figure population.

Roughly 4 in 5 people in Vietnam (78.8 percent)

use the internet today, but once Vietnamese people
come online, they’re often quick to embrace digital
innovations.

For example, Vietnam ranks highly for the use of

voice assistants, for making video calls, and for
investing in cryptocurrency.

Vietnamese internet users are also some of the most

active online shoppers, with data from GWI
indicating that almost 6 in 10 adult internet users in
the country (59 percent) make at least one online
purchase every week.

AD
ADVERTISEMENT

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 17/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Similarly, nearly three-quarters of Vietnam’s adult

internet users (74.1 percent) say that they pay for
some kind of digital content each month.

This may be partly explained by the fact that the

country is home to some of the world’s most ardent
gamers, with GWI’s data also revealing that a hefty
94 percent of Vietnamese internet users play video
games, ranking the country third out of GWI’s 53
surveyed countries.

However, Vietnamese people are considerably less

likely to spend their time watching television, with
GWI’s data placing the country last out of the 53
surveyed countries, at an average of just 2 hours
and 12 minutes per day.

Interestingly though, when Vietnamese people do

watch television, they’re much more likely to turn to
streaming services, with OTT platforms accounting
for more than half of the country’s TV viewing time.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 18/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

It’s also interesting to note that Vietnamese internet

users over-index when it comes to digital health and
wellbeing.

For example, more than a quarter of Vietnam’s

connected population aged 16 to 64 says that they
use a digital health or fitness service each month,
while an impressive 86.5 percent of this
demographic say that online resources are an
important source of information when choosing
treatments for everyday ailments like headaches
and colds.

Vietnamese internet users are also heavy users of

VPNs, with GWI’s data ranking the country fifth for
use of these tools.

However, the popularity of VPNs in Vietnam

doesn’t appear to be driven by privacy concerns,
with the country appearing in the lowest quartile
when it comes to netizens’ concerns about how
companies might use their personal data online.

And lastly for this section, social media remains a

big draw for Vietnam’s online communities, with
Kepios’s latest analysis ranking the country sixth in
terms of the share of internet users who use at least
one social media platform each month.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 19/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

ADVERTISEMENT

Time spent on social media

declines
Yet more valuable data from GWI reveals that the
amount of time people spend on social media has
been declining steadily over recent months.

The typical internet user’s daily social media activity

has fallen by 8.6 percent over the past couple of
years, from a high of 2 hours and 31 minutes in Q3
2022, to 2 hours and 19 minutes in the current
Q2 2024 survey wave.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 20/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

That 12-minute decline has resulted in the lowest

average we’ve seen during the past six years,
although it’s important to acknowledge that GWI’s
addition of audiences aged 65 and above in the
previous survey wave has accelerated recent
declines.

However, even if we remove those new audiences,

the latest average would still be the second-lowest
we’ve seen since Q2 2018.

And GWI’s data suggests that declines have been

relatively consistent across all age groups over
recent months too, so this isn’t a case of one
demographic skewing the overall average.

However, in more encouraging news for social

media fans, GWI’s data also shows that the number
of people who worry they spend “too much” time
on social media has also been declining steadily
over recent months.

Indeed, the latest share of global respondents who

agree with that statement – 26.6 percent – is the
lowest we’ve seen since this question first appeared
in GWI’s survey at the end of 2020.

Meanwhile, the number of respondents who say

that they think social media is “good for society”
has increased to new heights, with 37.5 percent of
respondents agreeing with this statement in the
latest survey wave.

So, while marketers will certainly want to keep an

eye on the time that their audiences spend using
AD social media, my interpretation of these various
trends is that we may be seeing a move towards
more “discerning” use of social media across all
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 21/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

age groups, perhaps as part of a more conscious

effort to avoid “mindless scrolling”.

ADVERTISEMENT

Rating#1 Program by IndiaToday

1:1 with Industry Mentors and 24X7 Support for Doubt Resolutions & Technical
Queries.

Inte

Social media adoption

increases
And in contrast to the decline in time spent, the
latest data indicates that more people than ever are
using social media platforms today.

Kepios’s analysis of activity across a wide variety

of social media platforms indicates that there are
now 5.22 billion active social media user
identities in the world, with that figure increasing by
more than 250 million over the past year.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 22/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

It’s important to highlight that the user figures

reported by these platforms may involve some level
of duplication, and – as the platforms themselves
acknowledge – they may also inadvertently include
a number of fake and false accounts.

However, by triangulating platforms’ own data with

reputable third-party intelligence from GWI,
data.ai, Similarweb, and Semrush, we’re
confident that the current 5.22 billion figure is highly
representative of actual global social media
adoption.

It’s also interesting to note that social media

adoption appears to have accelerated over the
past 12 months, as compared with growth rates for
the previous two years.

Our ongoing analysis indicates that global social

media user identities increased by 5.2 percent
between October 2023 and October 2024, which
is the fastest rate we’ve seen since 2021.

AD Countries in Africa and Central Asia have seen

some of the fastest growth in social media adoption
over recent months, although it’s important to note
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 23/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

that overall adoption is still quite low in many of

these countries.

In absolute terms, Indonesia has seen particularly

impressive growth over recent months, largely
thanks to a surge in the use of TikTok.

Indeed, figures published in Bytedance’s advertising

tools indicate that Indonesia is now home to the
world’s largest TikTok audience, with the company
reporting ad reach of more than 165 million in the
South-East Asian nation of 284 million people.

It’s worth noting that Bytedance’s tools only report

ad reach for users aged 18 and above, so the
company’s latest figures would mean more than 82
percent of Indonesian adults now use TikTok each
month.

However, our analysis of the available data

indicates that user “age misstatements” (e.g. people
below the age of 18 claiming to be older) may
impact this figure, although there’s no easy way to
quantify the extent of this potential distortion.

It’s also important to stress that age

misrepresentation is a critical consideration across
all social media platforms, and TikTok is by no
means alone in experiencing such issues.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 24/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

ADVERTISEMENT

Social search on the rise

In addition to growing user numbers, marketers will
also be interested to learn that social search
appears to be gaining momentum.

The latest research from GWI indicates that more

people than ever are using social networks for
brand research, with 46.1 percent of global
survey respondents saying that they turn to these
platforms when looking for information about
brands and products that they’re considering
buying.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 25/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Consumers in Africa are the most ardent “social

searchers”, with more than 87 percent of survey
respondents in Nigeria and Ghana responding in
the affirmative.

However, social search is also a key consideration

across Latin America and South-East Asia, with
more than half of adult internet users across both
regions saying that they use social networks to
research potential purchases.

Women are more likely than men to use social

networks for research, but the figures show that
social research is still a key consideration for brands
hoping to reach and engage male consumers.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, younger generations are the

most likely to research brands on social networks,
but more than 1 in 3 consumers aged 55 to 64 also
say that they turn to these platforms when they’re
exploring potential purchases.

ADVERTISEMENT
AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 26/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

QR codes are finally

mainstream
In one of the stealthiest digital ascents we’ve seen
over the past 15 years, QR codes have [finally!]
gone “mainstream” this quarter, with more than half
of the world’s adult internet users saying that
they’ve scanned one of these images within the past
month.

Furthermore, the share of internet users interacting

with QR codes has increased meaningfully over the
past couple of years, from 44.3 percent in Q2
2022, to 50.5 percent in Q2 2024.

Countries in Asia and Latin America see the highest

levels of QR code use, although it’s interesting to
find Switzerland in second place in the latest
ranking, just behind China.

In contrast, people across many parts of Europe

and North America seem to be less enamoured with
camera-based web navigation, with both the USA
and the UK languishing near the bottom of the
current ranking.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 27/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

However, in something of another surprise, young

people do not appear to be the primary source of
QR codes’ recent momentum.

Indeed, GWI’s data shows that people aged 35 to

54 are actually more likely to interact with QR
codes than people ages 18 to 34 are.

ADVERTISEMENT

Advanced Data Science Course

Highest CTC and 85% of Learners Received Positive Career Growth and 95%
Satisfaction Score

Inte

Threads is gaining momentum

AD Since its launch in July 2023, Meta’s newest
platform – Threads – has enjoyed somewhat mixed
fortunes.
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 28/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

The app arrived to much fanfare, with statistics

suggesting it had enjoyed the fastest launch of any
mobile app in history.

That early momentum quickly evaporated though,

and app downloads fell by 80 percent between
July and September 2023.

However, Zuck and team appear to have turned

things around since then, and various data points
suggest that Threads is now delivering promising
growth.

Meta’s ad tools don’t currently offer any insight into

the platform’s potential reach, but third-party
intelligence from data.ai (now a Sensor Tower
company) suggests that more than a quarter of a
billion users opened the Threads mobile app in
August 2024.

That total already marks a meaningful milestone in

Threads’ ongoing growth, but the platform’s user
growth figures are even more compelling.

Active user numbers reported by data.ai increased

by more than 10 percent in both July and August
this year, and Kepios’s own analysis suggests that
we may see similar growth rates in September
2024 too.

These figures are enough to place Threads in

data.ai’s ranking of the fastest growing apps by
monthly active users, with the platform adding even
more users than ChatGPT over the past three
months.

AD
Threads growth in context

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 29/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Few would deny that a quarter of a billion monthly

active users is an impressive achievement, but that
figure still isn’t enough to qualify for the top 15
social media platforms by active users.

For perspective, Pinterest currently takes fifteenth

spot in that ranking, with 522 million monthly active
users – more than double Threads’ latest total.

Meanwhile, intelligence from data.ai indicates that

both LinkedIn and Discord also have larger active
user bases than Threads does.

Moreover, despite rapidly increasing user numbers,

the average time that each user spends using the
Threads Android app – 34 minutes per month – is
still considerably lower than figures we see for
similar platforms.

For comparison, X users spend an average of 5

hours and 19 minutes per month using the platform’s
Android app, which is more than 9 times longer
than the equivalent figure for Threads.
AD
While we’re on the subject of the platform formerly
known as Twitter, it’s increasingly difficult to identify

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 30/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

how many people actually use X each month [more

on that topic later in this analysis], but figures point
to somewhere in the region of 600 million monthly
active user accounts, which is well over double
Threads’ current total.

ADVERTISEMENT

For added perspective, the typical TikTok user

spends more than 60 times longer using TikTok’s
Android app each month than the typical Threads
user spends using the Threads Android app.

However, these two platforms have completely

different use cases, so this is perhaps an unfair
comparison.

But Threads is still a long way behind its closest

sibling too, with Instagram users spending as much
time using that app each day as Threads users
spend using the Threads app each month.

Having said that, data.ai’s figures show that the

monthly time spent using the Threads Android app
has increased by roughly 50 percent over the past
quarter, from an average of 22 minutes per user in
May, to 34 minutes per user in August 2024.

Perhaps most importantly though, Threads hasn’t yet

become a “daily habit” for many users.

Fewer than 1 in 4 of the app’s active users opens

AD the platform’s Android app each day, and only
LinkedIn sees a lower frequency of app use
amongst the top Western social platforms.
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 31/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

However, data.ai’s figures point to steady growth in

this metric too, so – despite its current “underdog”
status – it seems that Threads is increasingly a force
to be reckoned with.

Meta still dominates social

But despite its growing popularity, Threads is still
only a very small part of Meta’s social empire.

The company’s most recent (Q2 2024) investor

earnings report states that 3.27 billion people
use at least one of its apps every day, while Meta’s
ad planning tools report that ads across the
company’s platforms reach just short of 3 billion
unique individuals each month.

Zuck and team stopped reporting monthly active

user figures for Facebook in their earnings
announcements a few quarters ago, so it’s now
more difficult to cite exact figures for individual
platform use.

For perspective, the company’s most recent

“official” figure for Facebook use (in January
2024) was 3.065 billion monthly active users, but
– as we’ve noted before – the company’s official
MAU figures have invariably been considerably
higher than its own figures for Facebook ad reach.

Meanwhile, third-party figures for active Facebook

use also tend to be lower than the company’s
“official” MAU figures, although it’s important to
stress that this dynamic is common across all social
platforms, not just those owned by Meta.
AD
So how many people are actually using Meta’s
platforms each month?

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 32/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Well, Kepios’s analysis of data from the company’s

own ad planning tools, together with our analysis of
third-party data from GWI, data.ai, Similarweb,
and Semrush, indicates that:

WhatsApp now has roughly 2.30 billion

global monthly active users

Facebook now has roughly 2.25 billion

global monthly active users

Instagram now has roughly 2.00 billion

global monthly active users

Messenger now has roughly 1.25 billion

global monthly active users

Threads now has roughly 250 million global

monthly active users

ADVERTISEMENT

However, it’s interesting to note that ad reach as a

percentage of overall user figures still varies
meaningfully across each of these platforms.

First up, remember that WhatsApp is still ad free (at

least for now), while ad placements are yet to
launch on Threads.

Across the other three platforms, Meta’s own tools

state that ads reach the following audiences each
month:

Facebook: 2.22 billion users

Instagram: 1.69 billion users

Messenger: 937 million users

For perspective, that means nearly all Facebook

AD users see ads on the platform, but roughly 15
percent of Instagram users may not be served any
Instagram ads in a typical month, while roughly 1 in
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 33/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

4 active Messenger users fall outside of that

platform’s “ad audience”.

However, Meta’s own tools indicate that Facebook

ad reach has declined by 3.7 percent over the
past year, from 2.31 billion in October 2023, to
today’s 2.22 billion.

In absolute terms, Facebook’s ad reach has

dropped by 85 million since this time last year,
although it’s worth noting that this change may
reflect a “correction” resulting from the removal of
duplicate and false accounts, and may not indicate
any equivalent change in real, human users.

On the other hand, Instagram reach has increased

by 3.1 percent over the past 12 months, from 1.64
billion in October 2023, to today’s 1.69 billion.

That means Instagram has added more than 50

million users to its ad audience over the past year,
with Brazil and India responsible for the majority of
that growth.
AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 34/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Messenger’s ad reach has been on a downward

trajectory over recent months though, and the latest
reported figure of 937 million is actually below the
figure that the company reported this time two years
ago.

Figures reported in Meta’s own tools show that

Messenger reach has fallen by almost 100 million
since October 2023, equating to a drop of 9.5
percent, while the most recent figure is 39 million
lower than the total for October 2022.

ADVERTISEMENT

Making sense of Meta’s trends

But it’s critical that we put these figures in

perspective.
AD
First up, changes to the company’s own reporting
policies – especially in relation to the reporting of

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 35/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

ad reach for audiences below the age of 18 – has

likely played a role in damping reported figures,
and total ad reach across all ages may actually be
higher than the reported figures suggest.

It’s also important to remember that – on average –

3.27 billion people use one of Meta’s platforms
every single day.

That’s a remarkable achievement, made all the

more remarkable when we consider that the
company’s platforms remain blocked in China.

Indeed, if we focus solely on populations aged 13

and above outside of China, data suggests that a
whopping 63 percent of all those people who can
use Meta’s platforms already do so every single
day.

That’s nearly two-thirds of the total eligible

population, without even factoring for internet
adoption.

Quality and quantity

And furthermore, Meta’s strength doesn’t just lie in

active user numbers.

Research from GWI shows that 64.1 percent of

adult internet users outside of China choose a
Meta-owned property as their “favourite” social
platform, although it’s important to highlight that
YouTube is not available as an answer option for
this question in GWI’s survey [GWI treats YouTube
as a video platform rather than as a social media
platform].

Social media users aged 35 to 44 are the most

likely to choose a Meta platform as their favourite,
with more than 2 in 3 (66.9 percent) people in that
cohort outside of China preferring one of the
company’s properties.

However, more than 6 in 10 people (61.3 percent)

aged 16 to 24 outside of China also choose a
Meta property as their favourite, so the company
still has plenty of heft amongst younger generations
too.
AD

In other words, people don’t just use Meta’s

platforms – they actively embrace them.
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 36/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Overall, Instagram is the world’s “most preferred”

social medium today, with 1 in 6 social media
users (16.7 percent) at a worldwide level
identifying the platform as their favourite [note that
this figure includes social media users in China].

WhatsApp takes second place in the latest global

ranking, with just under 16 percent of the total
vote.

And Facebook takes third spot, with 13.2 percent

of the world’s adult internet users identifying it as
their favourite.

WeChat is the first non-Meta platform to appear,

with 1 in 8 global users identifying Tencent’s super
app as their top choice.

And TikTok rounds out the top five, with 7.9

percent of global internet users over the age of 16
identifying the short video platform as their
favourite.

TikTok has been building momentum over recent

months though, so it’s worth taking a closer look at
whether the short video phenomenon might
challenge Meta’s dominance.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 37/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

ADVERTISEMENT

Instagram vs TikTok
First up, a juicy headline: the global TikTok ad reach
figure reported in Bytedance’s planning tools is now
higher than the global Instagram ad reach figure
reported in Meta’s planning tools.

More specifically:

TikTok reports ad reach of 1.690 billion for

audiences aged 18+ (note that no data is
available for younger audiences).

Instagram reports global ad reach of 1.688

billion for audiences aged 13+, and 1.620
billion for audiences aged 18+.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 38/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

However, third-party data tells quite a different

story to these company-reported figures, and all the
evidence suggests that Instagram is still well ahead
of TikTok when it comes to active user numbers.

For example, data.ai’s figures for mobile app

activity indicate that Instagram still has at least 50
percent more users than TikTok does.

GWI’s survey data tells a similar story to data.ai’s

app intelligence too, with figures for Instagram use
just over 50 percent higher than figures for TikTok
use [note that we treat GWI’s figures for TikTok use
in China as “Douyin”, just as ByteDance does in its
own corporate reporting].

Given both platforms’ reliance on mobile app

experiences, web traffic figures are somewhat less
representative, but it’s still interesting to note that
Semrush’s figures put Instagram roughly 50
percent ahead of TikTok, while Similarweb’s
figures put the gap at closer to 30 percent in
Instagram’s favour.
AD

So, based on these various third-party figures, it’s

safe to conclude that Instagram is still comfortably
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 39/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

ahead of TikTok when it comes to overall user

numbers.

However, these same datasets do suggest that

TikTok’s user base is growing faster than Instagram’s
is, so we’ll continue to monitor this situation in future
reports.

The broadest appeal?

But looking beyond absolute user numbers, we

spotted another intriguing data point in this
quarter’s research.

Even though it’s not the world’s largest social

platform, the latest audience overlaps data from
GWI suggests that Instagram is social media users’
most common “second” platform, with the platform
seeing the highest proportion of overlaps compared
with any other platform.

For example, almost 89 percent of Snapchat users

also use Instagram, while more than 4 in 5 TikTok
users also use Instagram.

Meanwhile, Instagram is the most common overlap

amongst active users of YouTube, Facebook, Reddit,
and various other platforms – including LinkedIn,
where Instagram ties with Facebook for the most
frequent match.

There may be various reasons for this pattern, but

one potential “read” of the data is that Instagram
has the broadest appeal of any social media
platform, catering to different kinds of users, with
different interests and motivations.

AD

ADVERTISEMENT

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 40/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

TikTok vs Instagram: from reach to

frequency and consumption

User numbers aren’t the only metric that marketers

should consider when building a social media plan
though, and TikTok delivers a compelling case when
it comes to some other important measures.

For example, TikTok is the clear winner in data.ai’s

latest figures for monthly time per active user, with
the typical user of the platform’s Android app
spending an average of 34 hours and 15
minutes per month scrolling through videos.

That’s the equivalent of well over an hour every

day, but remember that this is the average, and
many people will spend considerably longer than
this using the platform each month.

Meanwhile, the same dataset puts average

Instagram use at just 16 hours and 49 minutes
per month – less than half of the figure we just saw
for TikTok.

data.ai’s intelligence does reveal that Instagram

AD
sees a slightly higher figure for average “sessions”
per month, but each of those sessions lasts an

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 41/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

average of 2 minutes and 53 seconds, which is less

than half of the average of 5 minutes and 58
seconds for each TikTok session.

So, while Instagram appears to have a

meaningfully higher number of active users, the
world still spends more cumulative time using TikTok
each month, and data.ai’s figures indicate that
TikTok’s total is more than 20 percent higher than
total Instagram time.

Show me the money

Neither company publishes detailed insights into ad

revenue for these specific platforms.

However, eMarketer estimates that Instagram will

capture roughly USD $31 billion of ad spend in
the US alone in 2024, which is almost three times
higher than the USD $10.4 billion that it
forecasts for TikTok’s US ad revenues this year.

For added perspective, users in the USA account for

roughly 9.8 percent of Instagram’s global ad
audience, whereas that figure is quite a bit lower –
8.2 percent – for TikTok.

However, TikTok also earns revenue through TikTok

Shop, with ByteDance stating a target of USD
$17.5 billion for the platform’s social commerce
sales in 2024.

And the company also earns a sizeable chunk of

revenue from TikTok coins, which the platform’s end
users can send to content creators in much the same
way that they might throw coins into the guitar case
AD
of a physical world busker.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 42/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Indeed, TikTok was the top grossing app across the

Google Play and iOS app stores between June and
August 2024, even when compared with the
world’s top mobile games.

More specifically, the latest intelligence from

data.ai shows that global users spent a total of
roughly USD $3.7 billion on TikTok Coins in the
12 months to August 2024 (not including Douyin),
and even if 30 percent of this total will go to app
store owners, that means TikTok still earned USD
$2.6 billion in revenue from end consumers over
the past year.

So, while Instagram probably still leads in terms of

overall revenue (at least outside of China), it’s also
clear that TikTok is a formidable cash cow for
ByteDance.

ADVERTISEMENT

Marketing considerations

But from a marketing perspective, one other stat

AD
really stands out.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 43/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

The latest research from GWI shows that Instagram

users are considerably more likely to say they use
the platform to research potential purchases than
TikTok users are to say the same of the short video
platform.

More specifically, 62.3 percent of Instagram users

aged 16 and above say that they use the platform
to follow or research brands and products,
compared with less than half (49.7 percent) of
TikTok users who use that platform for the same
purposes.

And remember that Instagram’s active user base is

roughly 1.5 times the size that of TikTok’s user base
too, which further amplifies the significance of this
gap.

Furthermore, it’s worth highlighting that Facebook

users are also more likely to turn to that platform to
research potential purchases than TikTok users are.

That’s not to say that TikTok isn’t a great opportunity

of course; indeed, everything we’ve seen so far
proves that it’s one of the most compelling channels
in the modern marketing landscape.

However, all of the data presented here shows that

media headlines aren’t always the most
representative indication of a platform’s potential,
and more established platforms are still just as
worthy of marketers’ attention as the shiny new kids
on the block.

And the conclusion here is one that we see again

and again in these Global Digital Reports: every
AD
marketer needs to do their own due diligence, and
invest time to understand the specific preferences

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 44/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

and behaviours of their chosen audiences in each

of their chosen markets.

And on that note, it’s worth pointing out that TikTok’s

audience profile has aged meaningfully over the
past year.

Indeed, men aged 25 to 34 now account for more

than 1 in 5 users in the platform’s ad audience, and
ByteDance’s own data indicates that the 25 to 34
year-old segment now accounts for the largest
share of the platform’s ad audience overall.

More specifically, users aged 25 to 34 now

account for more than 36 percent of TikTok’s total
ad reach, compared with 33 percent for users aged
18 to 24.

For perspective, 69.4 percent of TikTok’s reported

ad audience is below the age of 35, compared with
the 62.4 percent of Instagram’s audience that falls
into this age group.

ADVERTISEMENT
AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 45/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

A false dichotomy

Having said all that, there’s one more data point in

this quarter’s report that “overrides” many of these
comparisons.

New numbers from GWI show that the typical

social media user now makes active use of 6.8
different platforms every month, with that figure
increasing over recent months.

And given that more than half of Instagram users

also use TikTok, while more than 80 percent of
TikTok users use Instagram, the simplest tip I can
offer is this: if your budget allows it, you can use
both platforms.

However, given the extent of those audience

overlaps, this may not be the most efficient long-
term strategy, so I’d recommend adopting a “test-
and-learn” approach to discover which platform
delivers the most cost effective results for your
needs.

Be sure to focus on value-generating outcomes

for your measurement though, because metrics such
as reach, frequency, and even engagement aren’t
particularly illuminating when it comes to
determining the business performance of your
social campaigns.

AD

YouTube tops the rankings

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 46/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

But despite continued media and industry

excitement surrounding “newer” platforms, our
analysis of all the available data suggests that
YouTube is still the largest “social media”
opportunity.

Granted, not everybody considers YouTube to be a

“social” platform, but we could easily say the same
of TikTok, and either way, I’m not convinced that
such semantic arguments help us to make better
choices.

So, let’s focus on the data, and explore what the

numbers tell us.

First up, figures reported in each company’s own ad

planning tools put YouTube firmly at the top of the
leaderboard, with monthly ad reach of 2.53
billion.

That global total has crept up over recent months

too, with Google’s ad planning resources pointing
to quarter-on-quarter growth of just over 1 percent.

For comparison, YouTube’s reported ad reach figure

is roughly 14 percent higher than that of Facebook,
its next nearest rival.

However, Google’s tools currently only report ad

reach data for 87 countries, compared with the 236
territories for which we’re able to collect ad reach
data for Facebook, so it’s likely that YouTube’s
“true” ad reach is even higher than the published
figures suggest.

And in another interesting development, YouTube’s

AD
reported adult audience figure has now surpassed
that of Facebook.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 47/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Google’s latest data shows that YouTube ads now

reach 2.26 billion adults aged 18+ each month,
compared with 2.22 billion adults aged 18+ for
Facebook.

But other datasets tell an even more compelling

story.

The latest intelligence from data.ai indicates that

YouTube users spend almost twice as long using the
platform’s Android app each month as Facebook
users spend using Facebook’s Android app.

As we saw earlier, it’s worth noting that TikTok tops

the rankings when it comes to average time per
user, but the sheer number of YouTube users means
that YouTube’s cumulative monthly watch time is
more than double the figure we see for TikTok.

ADVERTISEMENT

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 48/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Moreover, these figures only factor activity on the

platform’s apps.

For added perspective, data from Similarweb

shows that internet users spend close to 10 billion
additional hours per month watching YouTube
videos in web browsers, which is considerably more
than the 146 million additional hours that people
spend watching TikTok videos in web browsers.

Figures from Semrush put YouTube even further

ahead, but the takeaway is still the same: in
addition to being the world’s most used mobile app,
YouTube is also the second most popular destination
on the web, and only Google.com ranks higher.

And for some fun trivia, Semrush’s data also shows

that YouTube is the most common destination after a
Google search, with a hefty 4.6 percent of all
visits to Google.com resulting in a subsequent visit
to YouTube.com.

Based on Semrush’s latest data, these figures

suggest that Google refers roughly 6 billion visits
to its sister platform every month.
AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 49/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

What’s happening at X?
It’s been a while since we took a look at the
platform formerly known as Twitter, but considering
the platform will doubtless become more of a
feature in media headlines over the coming weeks
thanks to the impending US election, it’s worth
taking a closer look at X.

First up, we detected yet more anomalies in X’s

reported ad reach data this quarter, with the
company’s own ad tools reporting eerily similar
growth in reach for almost every single country in
the world.

More specifically, the difference in the country

reach figures reported by X’s own tools between
July 2024 and October was consistently between
0.7 percent and 0.8 percent, with 98 of 231 total
territories seeing growth of 0.7457 percent.

X’s press team didn’t respond to our request for

clarification by our publication deadline, so it’s
unclear whether this anomaly relates to a system
glitch, or whether it’s the result of a change in X’s
reporting methodology.

However, it seems highly implausible that we’d see

such consistency in growth across all of these
countries, so we’d advise significant caution when
interpreting the latest growth figures in X’s ad reach
data.

Having said that, the current audience total of 590

million reported by X’s tools aligns closely with
AD user figures published by third-party tools.

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 50/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

For example, data.ai’s latest intelligence suggests

that X’s mobile app attracted more than 600
million active users in August 2024.

Meanwhile, GWI’s latest survey data suggests that

the platform’s overall user figure may be
considerably higher still, with the addition of web-
based users taking the overall total towards 800
million.

To add perspective to these figures, Similarweb’s

data indicates that X.com attracted an average of
488 million unique monthly visitors between June
and August 2024, while Semrush reports that X.com
saw more than 900 million unique monthly visitors
in August 2024.

There will likely be a meaningful degree of overlap

between X use in mobile apps and in web
browsers, but nonetheless, these third-party figures
suggest that X’s own ad reach figure of 590 million
may indeed be highly representative of actual
platform use.

AD

ADVERTISEMENT

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 51/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Logged-in users vs platform influence

However, let’s return to those web traffic figures,

because they tell an important story about X
(Twitter) use that’s often overlooked in media
reports.

For starters, while Similarweb reports a somewhat

lower figure for unique monthly visits (488 million),
the company’s analysis still ranks X.com fifth in the
world in terms of total website traffic, putting it
ahead of Wikipedia.

The same data also suggests that the typical

“visitor” returns almost 10 times per month too,
which indicates a relatively high frequency of use.

However, there’s insufficient nuance in this data to

tell us how many of these visitors actually signed in
to X, as opposed to visiting the site as an
anonymous content consumer.

These figures likely also underrepresent the overall

impact that X has when we consider that news
outlets still frequently embed tweets within their own
content [sorry Elon, but “X posts” just doesn’t sound
as good as “tweets”].

But even if we focus on visits to the platform’s own

web domain, Similarweb’s latest data suggests that
X.com still accounts for a sizeable 1 percent of all
traffic to the world’s top 10,000 web domains.
AD

For comparison, Google.com accounts for 18.6

percent of that total, Youtube for 6.6 percent, and
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 52/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Facebook for 2.9 percent.

Instagram ranks fourth with 1.3 percent, with X’s 1

percent putting it in fifth place.

But while we’re exploring this data, it’s worth

highlighting that Yahoo! still features prominently in
these top domains, with traffic to the site’s “.com”
and “.co.jp” domains combining to capture roughly
1.6 percent of the total across the world’s top
10,000 websites, which means that Yahoo! could
technically be considered the world’s fourth most
visited web brand.

In other words, there are still plenty of amazing

opportunities out there, if you’re willing to look
beyond hyperbolic media headlines.

Social media rapid roundup

Next up, here are some of this quarter’s other big
social media headlines…

Telegram pushing towards 1 billion

users

Despite a litany of legal challenges affecting the

company over recent weeks, Telegram adoption
continues to climb, with the platform’s latest
“official” statement putting monthly active users at
950 million.

Third-party data corroborates this trajectory too,

with figures from both GWI and data.ai putting the
user total in the same ballpark.
AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 53/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Snapchat MAU up to 850 million

In its Q2 2024 investor earnings announcement,

Snapchat revealed that it now has 850 million
monthly active users, with more than half of those
users (432 million) logging in every day.

However, the company’s ad planning resources

suggest that Snapchat ad reach has fallen over
recent months, with the latest total of 706 million
roughly 0.7 percent lower than the figure the
company’s tools reported in July.

ADVERTISEMENT

AD

LinkedIn still growing

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 54/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

The latest figures published in LinkedIn’s ad

planning tools suggests that the platform’s ads now
reach more than 1 in 5 of the world’s adults.

It’s important to stress that LinkedIn’s ad reach is

based on total registered members rather than
monthly active users, but nonetheless, the data
makes for interesting reading.

The company’s own ad reach figures point to a

global audience of 1.15 billion, with that figure
increasing by more than 16 percent since this time
last year.

However, third-party data suggests that active use

of the LinkedIn platform is likely less than half of that
ad reach figure, and Kepios’s analysis of various
data points to a more likely figure of between 350
and 400 million monthly active users.

Reddit roars on

Reddit continues to post healthy growth after its IPO

earlier this year, with the company’s ad planning
tools reporting a 5.9 percent quarter-on-quarter
increase in global ad reach.

The available data suggests that Reddit ads now

reach 264 million users each month, although the
platform’s ad planning tools don’t seem to report
data for various countries across Eastern Europe.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 55/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Moreover, similar to the situation we saw earlier for

X, third-party data indicates that non-logged-in
visitors may account for a significant share of Reddit
activity, suggesting that Reddit may have far more
“influence” than these ad reach figures suggest.

For example, Similarweb’s latest data shows that

Reddit.com accounts for 0.8 percent of global
traffic to the world’s top 10,000 web domains,
placing Reddit ninth in Similarweb’s overall website
ranking.

The company’s absolute figures also make for

interesting reading, with Similarweb reporting 632
million unique monthly visitors to Reddit.com

Semrush reports an even bigger figure though, with

the company’s latest analysis pointing to a hefty
966 million unique monthly visitors.

Meanwhile, a combined total of 5.84 billion

monthly visits is enough to place Reddit sixth in
Semrush’s latest website ranking, suggesting that the
platform is still more popular than the world’s top
“adult” site.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 56/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

The outlook for 2025

Those first 9,000 words of analysis should help you
get a grasp on the global “state of digital” in
October 2024, but what about the future?

Let’s conclude our final Global Digital Report of

2024 by turning our attention to the developments
in connected behaviour that I think will have the
greatest impact on digital in 2025 and beyond.

Note that this isn’t an outlook on tech developments

though, so you won’t find any breathless hyperbole
about quantum [or even post-quantum!] computing,
extended reality, edge devices, “hyper
automation”, or – ahem – the metaverse.

ADVERTISEMENT

1. Search and research

This shouldn’t come as a shock, but my top tip for

2025 is that various factors will combine to reshape
the search landscape over the coming months.

Firstly, with Statista projecting that the global

search advertising market will be worth USD $306
billion in 2024 alone, it’s almost inevitable that an
increasing number of AI solutions will offer
alternatives to today’s search engines.

There’s every chance that evolved AI offerings from

Google and Microsoft will come to dominate AI
search of course, just as their “conventional” search
offerings do today.
AD
However, it seems increasingly likely that we’ll see
AI search platforms offer compelling alternatives to

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 57/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

the current, link-based SERPs paradigm, and it may

be particularly difficult for Google and Bing to
build momentum in that space without cannibalising
their hugely valuable conventional search offerings.

However, we’ve already seen both Google and

Bing feature an increasing number of snippets and
summaries in their respective results, resulting in a
meaningful number of searches delivering “zero-
click” outcomes, where the searcher does not need
to go beyond the search results page in order to
find the information they need.

Meanwhile, social search may continue the upward

trajectory that we explored earlier in this analysis.

Indeed, social search has been on the rise for some

time now, especially amongst younger generations
and in less developed economies.

Moreover, with platforms like TikTok now

promoting on-platform search ads, we might
expect to see these behaviours gain even more
momentum in 2025 and beyond.

Don’t be misled by headlines and clickbait though;

conventional search is just as popular as it’s even
been, even amongst younger audiences.

Overall, 82.4 percent of internet users aged 16

and above used a search engine in the past month,
and that figure is actually even higher – 82.8
percent – amongst users aged 16 to 24.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 58/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Critically though, data from GWI shows that people

across generations discover and research brands,
products and services through a wide variety of
channels.

And that’s the key takeaway here: people will

continue to adopt a range of different behaviours in
order to find what they want, even if the mix of
devices and services they use to satisfy those needs
may evolve over time.

Recommendation: take a multifaceted approach

to search in the months ahead, to ensure you’re
always in the right place at the right time.

ADVERTISEMENT

2. Diverging displays
AD
Digital experiences continue to “migrate” to new
kinds of devices, and some of these new behaviours

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 59/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

will be worthy of renewed attention from marketers

in 2025.

Firstly, connected televisions (CTVs) are playing an

increasingly important role within the “digital mix”,
and these big screens offer marketers some
excellent opportunities to reach audiences with
high-impact video content.

For perspective, GWI reports that nearly 1 in 3

connected adults (31.6 percent) say that they
already access digital content via a television.

Meanwhile, Google’s advertising resources indicate

that advertisers can now reach more than 40
percent of Americans via YouTube ads on
connected televisions, while the equivalent figure in
the UK and Australia is roughly1 in 3, and the
figure for Brazil is just over 28 percent.

However, it’s worth stressing that experts have

voiced concerns relating to ad fraud with CTV
apps, so marketers should conduct careful due
diligence when planning and deploying CTV
campaigns.

But it’s not just big screens that are capturing a

greater share of our digital activities.

GWI’s data also shows that more and more of us

are using smartwatches, with more than 1 in 4
connected adults saying that they now own one of
these devices.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 60/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Admittedly, most users won’t be watching feature

films on their smartwatch, but the fact that these
devices are often a first conduit for digital
notifications means that marketers may want to
explore the potential that these devices offer within
a broader digital mix.

And lastly, despite rather lacklustre sales of Apple’s

Vision Pro headset since its launch earlier this year,
there’s still a chance that “spatial computing” will
start to gain momentum over the coming months.

Current trends don’t point to mainstream adoption

any time soon though, so my counsel to marketers
here is to adopt a patient, “wait-and-see”
approach when it comes to spatial computing.

Top tip: explore opportunities to deliver immersive

video experiences via connected TVs.

ADVERTISEMENT

3. Entertainment and escapism

AD
And while we’re on the subject of immersive video
experiences, our analysis suggests that audiences

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 61/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

are increasingly turning to digital platforms for

entertainment.

GWI reports that watching videos, TV shows, and

movies is a primary reason for using the internet
amongst more than half of the world’s connected
adults, with this motivation now on par with
accessing news content.

Watching videos and shows is particularly

prevalent amongst younger audiences, with close to
6 in 10 (58.9 percent) saying that this is a primary
reason why they go online.

It’s interesting to note that music videos remain the

top choice for online video content, although nearly
4 in 10 connected adults (38.6 percent) say that
they listen to music streaming services too.

Meanwhile, video games remain hugely popular

with the world’s internet users, with GWI reporting
that a whopping 84.1 percent of connected adults
play games.

AD
None of these are “new” behaviours per se, but our
analysis of trends over recent months suggests that

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 62/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

an increasing number of people have been turning

to the internet to find and consume entertainment
content.

These increases may in part have been driven by a

wider range of options, but there’s also a chance
that people are looking for a dose of escapism,
potentially due to the psychological impact of
recent news cycles.

Indeed, as we saw in our Digital 2024 Global

News Report, an increasing number of people are
actively “avoiding” news, and the latest edition of
the Reuters Digital News Report indicates that
roughly 4 in 10 people are now “worn out” by
“relentless”, “depressing” news cycles.

And while some audiences may welcome a

reprieve from 2024’s unprecedented global
election coverage, the ongoing spectre of war in
the Middle East and Ukraine, coupled with rising
geopolitical tensions, mean that the impact of “news
overload” is just as likely to continue in 2025.

That’s not to say that people will stop looking for

and consuming factual content online, and I fully
expect to see “finding information” continue to top
the global ranking of digital motivations for some
time to come.

However, I also expect we’ll see an increasing

trend towards “online escapism”, and this may have
particularly important implications for marketers.

Recommendation: invest time to understand the

contexts in which your marketing content and
AD
experiences will come to life, and look for
opportunities to deliver “emotional value” in the

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 63/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

form of escapism, reassurance, or even just an

alternative to the “superlativisation” that seems to
dominate today’s feeds.

ADVERTISEMENT

4. Connecting with community

Sticking with people’s motivations for going online,

one of the other trends we’ve been watching this
year has been an increase in the importance that
people place on connecting with friends and loved
ones.

On a relative basis compared with this time three

years ago, GWI’s data shows that people are now
10 percent more likely to say that “staying in touch
with friends and family” is a primary reason for
going online, and more than 6 in 10 people (60.1
percent) cited this as a top motivation in the
company’s latest wave of research.

That’s still behind the 62.6 percent of people who

cite the top-ranked motivation of “finding
information”, but the gap between these two
motivations has more than halved over the past
three years.

Keeping in touch with friends and family is also the

primary reason why people use social media today.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 64/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Meanwhile, chat and messaging platforms remain

the most widely used kind of connected service,
with close to 95 percent of connected adults
saying that they use at least one such app or
website every month.

And over recent months, we’ve also seen some

impressive gains from individual social platforms
that help people to connect with one another, with
Telegram and Snapchat both seeing strong user
growth over the course of 2024.

Suggestion: explore opportunities to use

marketing to help your audiences connect with the
people they care about. As Cory Doctorow
observed, “Content isn’t king… Conversation is
king. Content is just something to talk about.”

ADVERTISEMENT

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 65/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

Wrapping up
That’s all for this year’s Digital 2024 reports, but I’ll
be back on your screens again in just a few short
weeks, with the first of our Digital 2025 reports
already scheduled for early February.

In the meantime, don’t forget that you can dig into

more than a decade’s worth of data covering the
gamut of online behaviours in more than 230
countries and territories around the world in our
DataReportal library.

And if you’d like to connect with me, please feel

free to drop me a note on LinkedIn.

With that though, I wish you a successful Q4, a

relaxing year-end break, and all the best for 2025.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SIMON KEMP
Simon is DataReportal’s
chief analyst, and CEO of
Kepios.
Click here to see all of
Simon’s articles, read his
bio, and connect with him
on social media.

AD

Comments (0) Newest First

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 66/67
25/03/2025, 17:51 The Global State of Digital in 2024 — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights

PREVIOUS

DIGITAL 2025: ALPHABET’S OTHER BETS

NEXT

DIGITAL 2024 GLOBAL NEWS REPORT

Browse Info Connect

All Reports About LinkedIn

Global Reports Contact YouTube
Regional Reports Citation & Reuse X (Twitter)
Local Reports Notes on Data Facebook
Special Reports Legal Instagram
Search Privacy Policy Pinterest
Cookie Policy

© Kepios. All rights reserved.

AD

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot 67/67