The pandemic led to many upward revisions of our UK digital user forecasts. Some changes (podcast listeners) will be permanent, while others will be temporary (digital gamers). Our social network user numbers, meanwhile, didn’t change much at all.
Social media usage gains from 2020 have largely ended. Facebook will have its lowest growth rate ever, Instagram’s user base is getting older, and Twitter is coming down with a case of post-election malaise. However, TikTok and Reddit are still attracting users at an accelerated pace.
Our forecasts cover the top five social networks in Canada, but more niche platforms like Pinterest and reddit are also affecting usage patterns. These social networks cater to specific audiences and will lead to more fragmented social network usage in the years ahead. Daily usage of Facebook has dropped significantly over the past four years, per Abacus Data polling from January 2021.
The pandemic has fueled greater social media usage worldwide and prompted revisions to our earlier forecasts. We now expect the total number of social network users to rise 8.1% in 2020, to 3.23 billion—equivalent to 80.7% of all internet users.