Twitter’s user growth has been plateauing for years, as social media users gravitate toward newer platforms like Instagram and Snapchat. But among the countries included in our forecast for Twitter user growth, seven of the top 10 are in Asia-Pacific—a regional trend also evident with Facebook and to some extent, Instagram.

As for social media, we estimate penetration for children 11 and younger is in low single digits on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. What about some other digital tools? Tablets are important for kids, and nearly half of kids 11 and younger are users. Wearables penetration is negligible.

Twitter reported its Q4 2018 earnings Thursday, and although it beat revenue expectations, monthly usage fell for the third straight quarter to 321 million. In this eMarketer Analyst Insight, principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson and senior analyst Jasmine Enberg explain four key takeaways for advertisers.

Instagram Removes Likes, Facebook Launches Pay and Twitter Hides Replies

Last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sat through a congressional hearing over the company’s Libra cryptocurrency efforts, Instagram launched a standalone messaging app for users, and Twitter banned political advertising on its platform—and that was just a tiny portion of what made the news.

More than other social networks, Twitter reflects the real-time development of news events as well as political topics, especially at the national level; this tends to make Twitter usage and engagement rather changeable, but there is little danger of decreases in the user base. Twitter growth will remain modest throughout the forecast period.

Moderate Impact: Pinterest and Twitter. Pinterest and Twitter are faring better, but for very different reasons. Pinterest experienced record-high traffic and engagement in the early months of the pandemic, as people turned to the app to get inspiration for cooking and home improvement ideas.

eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson and senior analyst at Insider Intelligence Jasmine Enberg discuss the implications of Twitter's and Snapchat's Q2 earnings. They then talk about what types of social media content are most influential, Instagram's new "Shop" page and what the return of video app Zynn means.

Its sister property Instagram will end 2019 with 788.4 million users, followed by Snapchat (293.0 million) and Twitter (284.3 million). Even at its large size, Facebook will grow faster than Twitter for the next few years. Its 5.6% growth rate in 2019 will surpass Twitter’s 3.8%.

Twitter continues to reign supreme in Japan, with almost 64% of the country’s social network users, or 34.0 million people, logging on to the platform this year, according to eMarketer’s latest forecast.

eMarketer principal analyst Mark Dolliver and and vice president of research at Insider Intelligence Jennifer Pearson discuss the challenges and concerns that US parents face. They then talk about the most significant hack in Twitter's history.

eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson and junior analyst Blake Droesch of Insider Intelligence discuss what the US would look like if TikTok was banned. They consider the likelihood of that happening and the company's efforts on its "TikTok for Business" initiative. Later, they discuss what Twitter's new subscription service may be, some metrics for Instagram Stories and influencer marketing's new normal.

While its worldwide user base will be less than half the size of No. 1 platform Facebook (1.73 billion in 2019), Instagram is well ahead of both Snapchat and Twitter. Instagram is also on track to overtake Facebook in some countries and regions during our forecast period, including South Korea and Central and Eastern Europe.