Facebook, WhatApp, Instagram, YouTube or TikTok, we all use these platforms from time to time, but what is actually the most popular social media platform in Germany?

YouTube has regained the crown of the most popular social media service: seven out of ten online users aged 16 and over currently use Google's do-it-yourself video portal. Only two percentage points more than last year - but that's enough to recapture WhatsApp's social media throne.

The market share of Zuckerberg's messenger remains unchanged at 69 percent. In third place is Facebook as the platform for older users, which is still used by 60 percent. While the “big three” are largely standing still, the smaller services have been able to expand their user communities above average.

This is shown by the current Social Media Atlas 2021 from the Hamburg communications consultancy Aktuellkontor and the market researcher Toluna, for which 3,500 Internet users were surveyed representatively.

TikTok is growing the fastest

The strongest growth last year was TikTok, which was able to expand its market share by a whopping 16 percentage points to 26 percent. This helps the Chinese Musical.ly successor to make a big leap forward from 14th to 8th place among the most used social media in Germany. The platform for exchanging mini-video clips is particularly successful in appealing to young target groups: TikTok reaches 55 percent of 16 to 19-year-old Internet users and 57 percent between the ages of 20 and 29. At the other end of the scale, just four out of a hundred “silver surfers” aged 60 and over.

LinkedIn and Telegram are growing strongly

LinkedIn and Telegram were also able to gain significantly, with eight percentage points each. For a long time, Microsoft's professional network had a hard time gaining a foothold in this country - now LinkedIn, with 24 percent, reaches almost one in four German Internet users aged 16 and over. WhatsApp competitor Telegram now has 21 percent of online users on their cell phones.

Instagram and Snapchat: Same plus, different result

Longtime adversaries Instagram and Snapchat were both able to increase their respective slices of the pie by six percentage points - albeit at opposite ends of the table. Instagram is in fourth place with a market share of 46 percent, while Snapchat is only in the top 12 with 24 percent.

Things move forward faster at the back

Pinterest, Twitter and Xing, each with an increase of four percentage points, as well as blogs with three, were also able to gain more users over the course of a year than the leader, YouTube.

YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook: growth potential exhausted

“YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook have hardly any growth potential left in Germany and are therefore stuck in a defensive battle for the foreseeable future in order to maintain the market position they have achieved,” says Dr. Roland Heintze, managing partner of the Facts Office . “In the fight for the favor of users, they are faced with smaller and newer social media services that can – and will – continue to gain new users on a large scale with an offensive strategy and innovative, value-added and target group-oriented offerings.”

The most popular social media among Germans

MIMIKAMA
Infographic: YouTube is back at the top in the race for users' favor, TikTok rolled up the field from behind./ Image rights:Faktenkontor / Photographer:Faktenkontor
  1. YouTube (70% / +2)
  2. WhatsApp (69% / ±0)
  3. Facebook (60% / ±0)
  4. Instagram (46% / +6)
  5. Pinterest (33% / +4)
  6. Internet forums (30% / +2)
  7. Twitter (27% / +4)
  8. TikTok (26% / +16)
  9. Blogs (26% / +3)
  10. LinkedIn (24% / +8)
  11. Xing (24% / +4)
  12. Snapchat (24% / +6)
  13. Telegram (21% / +8)

(Proportion of Germans aged 16 and over with access to the Internet who use the respective social media service / change compared to the previous year in percentage points)

[mk_ad]

Source: PP/Faktenkontor
Also interesting:


If you enjoyed this post and value the importance of well-founded information, become part of the exclusive Mimikama Club! Support our work and help us promote awareness and combat misinformation. As a club member you receive:

📬 Special Weekly Newsletter: Get exclusive content straight to your inbox.
🎥 Exclusive video* “Fact Checker Basic Course”: Learn from Andre Wolf how to recognize and combat misinformation.
📅 Early access to in-depth articles and fact checks: always be one step ahead.
📄 Bonus articles, just for you: Discover content you won't find anywhere else.
📝 Participation in webinars and workshops : Join us live or watch the recordings.
✔️ Quality exchange: Discuss safely in our comment function without trolls and bots.

Join us and become part of a community that stands for truth and clarity. Together we can make the world a little better!

* In this special course, Andre Wolf will teach you how to recognize and effectively combat misinformation. After completing the video, you have the opportunity to join our research team and actively participate in the education - an opportunity that is exclusively reserved for our club members!


Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )