Global Social Network Users Pass 2 Billion For First Time Ever

A new report from Strategy Analytics is out. It looks into usage and advertising trends across major social networks, which continued to show strong growth in 2014.

For the first time, global social network users surpassed 2 billion users in 2014 –- about 29 percent of the world’s population.

Analysts expect users to reach 2.2 billion (or 31 percent of the population) by the end of 2015, and 2.72 billion by 2019.

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Global social network advertising spending rose 41 percent over the 2014, to $15.3 billion, which represents 11 percent of the total global digital advertising spend. About 75 percent of the total spending was allocated to Facebook Inc FB, while 8 percent went to Twitter Inc TWTR.

Strategy Analytics projects a 29 percent growth in social network ad spending for 2015, taking it to $24.2 billion.

“While Facebook currently dominates the global social network market, its absence in China allows local social networks such as QZone and Tencent Weibo to gain traction in the rapidly expanding Chinese digital advertising market,” analyst Leika Kawasaki, author of the report, explains.

Worth noting, roughly 25 percent of global social network users reside in China, while 46 percent live in the Asia Pacific region. Penetration is still low, leaving plenty of space for expansion, the report notes.

Another intriguing statistic: North America had the highest ratio of social network users to population at 64 percent, followed by Western Europe at 55 percent.