Emeka Nweze
Social networking apps are used to communicate and connect with people across geographical, political or economic borders. There are hundreds of social networking sites with almost the same functions, and only a few with distinct features. However repetitive or distinct, they continue to attract billions of active users all over the world.
Below are the apps with the most users.
1. Facebook
2.41 billion monthly active users
Facebook, Inc. is an American online social media and social networking service company based in Menlo Park, California. Facebook is the undisputed most used social networking site on the planet.
2. YouTube
1.9 billion monthly active users
YouTube is a video-sharing website headquartered in San Bruno, California. Google bought the site in November 2006 for US$1.65 billion; YouTube now operates as one of Google’s subsidiaries.
3. WhatsApp
1.5 billion monthly active users
WhatsApp Messenger is a freeware, cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP service owned by Facebook. It allows users to send text messages and voice messages, make voice and video calls, and share images, documents, user locations, and other media.
4. Facebook Messenger
1.3 billion monthly active users
Facebook Messenger is a messaging app and platform. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the company revamped its messaging service in 2010, and subsequently released standalone iOS and Android apps in August 2011.
5. WeChat
1.12 billion monthly active users
WeChat is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. It was first released in 2011, and became one of the world’s largest standalone mobile apps on 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users.
6. Instagram
1 billion monthly active users
Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, Inc. It was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010 exclusively on iOS.
7. QQ
823 million monthly active users
Tencent QQ, also known as QQ, is an instant messaging software service and web portal developed by the Chinese tech giant Tencent. QQ offers services that provide online social games, music, shopping, microblogging, movies, and group and voice chat software.
8. QZone
531 million monthly active users
Qzone is a social networking website based in China which was created by Tencent in 2005. It allows users to write blogs, keep diaries, send photos, listen to music, and watch videos.
9. Douyin / Tik Tok
500 million monthly active users
TikTok is an iOS and Android social media video app for creating and sharing short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos. The app was launched in 2017 by ByteDance, for markets outside of China. ByteDance has previously launched Douyin for the China market in September 2016.
10. Sina Weibo
446 million monthly active users
Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblogging website. Launched by Sina Corporation on August 14, 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 445 million monthly active users as of Q3 2018
11. Reddit
330 million monthly active users
Reddit is an American social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website. Registered members submit content to the site such as links, text posts, and images, which are then voted up or down by other members.
12. Twitter
326 million monthly active users
Twitter is an American online microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact with messages known as “tweets”. Tweets were originally restricted to 140 characters, but on November 7, 2017, this limit was doubled to 280 for all languages except Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
13. Douban
320 million monthly active users
Douban.com, is a Chinese social networking service website that allows registered users to record information and create content related to film, books, music, recent events, and activities in Chinese cities. Douban.com was launched on March 6, 2005,
14. LinkedIn
303 million monthly active users
LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented service that operates via websites and mobile apps. It is mainly used for professional networking, including employers posting jobs and job seekers posting their CVs
15. Baidu Tieba
300 million monthly active users
Established on December 3, 2003, Baidu Tieda is an online community that heavily integrates Baidu’s search engine. Users may search for a bar, which will then be created if it does not exist already.
