eMarketer: Global Social Network Users to Exceed 2.3 Billion in 2016

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In 2016, about 2.34 billion people around the world regularly visited social networks, an annual growth of 9.2%, accounting for 32.0% of the world's total population and 68.3% of Internet users. According to eMarketer's new report "Global Social Network Users: eMarketer's Forecast for 2016", mobile phones will be the main driver of social network growth in the next few years. In the past few years, the global social network ecosystem has undergone some important changes. Snapchat, Instagram and other emerging social networks have emerged; instant messaging applications have overlapping functions and services with social networks, making the competition in the social network field more intense. WeChat is a representative example, and WeChat has become China's leading social platform. In many countries where instant messaging applications are very popular, such as China, India, Brazil and Mexico, mobile phones have become an important tool for accessing social networks in these countries. Social networks are close to saturation in developed countries such as North America and Western Europe, and there is little room for growth. This year, the number of social network users in North America and Western Europe will increase by 3.1% and 3.8% respectively. The next round of growth in social networks will come from mobile users in Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa, as many users access the Internet for the first time through mobile phones as cheap smartphones, Wi-Fi and 3G and 4G networks become popular in these regions. This year, more than 80% of users worldwide use mobile phones to access social networks; by 2020, this index will be close to 86%.

The global social network penetration rate was also raised because social network penetration in China is higher than eMarketer previously estimated, and eMarketer also raised the number of social network users in India due to an increase in the country's forecast for Internet usage.

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