Global Social Networking Platforms Market Size, Share, Opportunities, COVID 19 Impact, And Trends By Application (Entertainment, Commercial), By End Users (Personal, SMEs And Large Enterprises), And By Geography - Forecasts From 2021 To 2026

The global social networking platforms market is evaluated at US$192.950 billion for the year 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 25.38% to reach a market size of US$939.679 billion by the year 2026.

The social networking platforms market has been increasing at an exponential rate. The rise in demand is not only just from the millennials but has also risen due to significant adoption by all age groups. Moreover, the application of social networking platforms witnessed a substantial rise owing to the demand coming from the companies which use the platforms for marketing purposes as well. A social networking/messenger site is an online platform that people use to build social networks or social relations with other people who share similar personal or career interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. In June 2020 alone, one app in the Apple App Store (LINE) had generated $6.78 million in global app revenues. Major factors expected to drive the growth of social media are being increasingly acknowledged as a platform that helps in directing search keywords towards the websites of companies, leading to enhanced website traffic and brand popularity/visibility. The proliferation of smartphones is also playing a vital role in the growth of the market. Social media apps designed for smartphones regularly track activities and further increase the relevance of social media marketing.

Furthermore, the exponential rate of data generated from social networking platforms has led companies to make marketing and customer-related decisions on the basis of customer data. The rising adoption of social networking platforms by various end-users for several purposes is expected to drive the market during the forecast period. For instance, Facebook, had 1,562 million active users daily, as of the first quarter of 2019. In fact, Twitter stated that 500 million Tweets are sent each day and 9% more people are using Twitter every day, reinstating the growing penetration of social media networks at a global level.

The advent of COVID-19 had a diverse impact on the global social networking platforms market. The market was significantly impacted during the initial months wherein businesses were disrupted due to lockdowns imposed by governments globally. Steps by national governments to contain the transmission have resulted in a decline in economic activity and restricted movement of goods and services with countries entering a state of lockdown. The outbreak is expected to continue to have a negative impact on businesses throughout 2020 and into 2021. However, many media markets have been unaffected or benefited from this as they transmit their content remotely through digital channels. Even though the e-commerce businesses running only through social networking platforms were negatively impacted, the overall use of such platforms witnessed a monumental increase during the period. According to the report by DataReportal, 43% of the consumers spent longer on these platforms, 54% watched more shows and movies on streaming services. 

For context, Akamai reports that global internet traffic has grown by as much as 30 percent this year, while research from GlobalWebIndex shows that the users are still spending considerably more time using connected tech than they were at the start of 2020.

The segmentation of the global social networking platforms market has been done into application, end-users, and geography. By application, the classification of the market has been done into entertainment and commercial. For end-users, the classification of the market has been done into personal, SMEs, and Large Enterprises. Furthermore, on the basis of geography, the global market has been distributed in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia Pacific.

Increasing e-commerce platforms that use social networking platforms is expected to drive the market during the forecast period

The growth of the social networking platforms market is fuelled by the increasing number of e-commerce platforms using these platforms for various purposes. For example, as of 2018, about 70% of China’s Generation Z (people born between 1900 and 2010) shop directly from social media channels. 

A steady decline in the effectiveness of traditional advertising campaigns, coupled with rising social media usage, prompted businesses to adopt a more data-oriented approach to their marketing strategies. The emergence of social media analytics has transformed the way marketing campaigns are planned and carried out in the present day. Social networks, such as Facebook, have realized the importance of targeted advertising that they are offering through paid solutions to businesses, wherein location, demographics, and end-device information of consumers are made available for businesses to reach out to the targeted section of consumers. In fact, according to HubSpot, a developer, and marketer of software products for inbound marketing and sales, marketers increased social advertisement budgets by 32% in 2018, leading to the production of more ads than ever before. In 2019, more brands may strengthen their online customer service practices and even move to new platforms that may potentially offer more effective technology for customer service to thrive online, such as WhatsApp and Messenger. The release of the WhatsApp Business API in August 2018 may continue to be a total game-changer in the industry. There were three million registered users on WhatsApp business by the end of the first quarter.

Competitive Insights

The players in the global Social networking platforms market are implementing various growth strategies to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors in this market. Major market players in the market have been covered along with their relative competitive strategies and the report also mentions recent deals and investments of different market players over the last few years. The company profiles section details the business overview, financial performance (public companies) for the past few years, key products and services being offered along with the recent deals and investments of these important players in the market.

Segmentation

• By Application
  • Entertainment
  • Commercial
• By End-users
  • Personal
  • SMEs
  • Large Enterprises
• By Geography
  • North America
    • USA
    • Canada
    • Mexico
  • South America
    • Brazil
    • Argentina
    • Others
  • Europe
    • Germany
    • France
    • UK
    • Others
  • Middle East & Africa
    • Saudi Arabia
    • UAE
    • Others
  • Asia Pacific
    • China
    • India
    • Japan
    • South Korea
    • Others

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. What will be the social networking platforms market size by 2026?
A1. The global social networking platforms market is projected to reach a total market size of US$939.679 billion by 2026.

Q2. What are the growth prospects for the social networking platforms market?
A2. The social networking platforms market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 25.38% during the forecast period.

Q3. What is the size of the global social networking platforms market?
A3. Social Networking Platforms Market was valued at US$192.950 billion for the year 2019.

Q4. How is the social networking platforms market segmented?
A4. The social networking platforms market has been segmented by application, end-users, and geography.

Q5. What factors are anticipated to drive the social networking platforms market growth?
A5. The social networking platforms market has been increasing at an exponential rate. The rise in demand is not only just from the millennials but has also risen due to significant adoption by all age groups.