eMarketer releases latest UK social media usage forecast
eMarketer has increased its estimate for internet usage, in 2017 54.4 million people, or 82 per cent of the population will be online, a growth of 2.1 per cent.
Younger audiences, particularly in the 0-4 category are driving up internet usage, in 2017 20.9 per cent of under four years will be online.
Digital video
Digital videos are the most popular online activity for the youngest internet users in the UK – this year 88.6 per cent of internet users aged under four will be tuning in.
Buoyed by the growth in younger age categories, overall video numbers are up, in 2017 eMarketer estimates that 43.2 million people, equating to 79.4 per cent of internet users will be watching online videos.
Digital audio
Streaming and downloading is growing rapidly, and the move towards 4G networks, which will allow music and videos to be delivered over mobile networks more quickly, will speed this up. In 2017, more than half (52.0 per cent) of the population, or 34.5 million people, will listen to music or other audio content digitally this year.
Social media usage
Overall social meida users are up, this year 55.1 per cent of the population (36.6 million) people will use social networks, a growth of 3.4 per cent.
In 2017, 32.7 million people in the UK will use Facebook (30.3 million on mobile), a jump of 2.8 per cent over last year.
This year, 12.53 million people in the UK using Twitter (12.1 million on mobile), a yearly growth of 2.5 per cent.
Snapchat
Sapchat will be used by 13.6 million people, representing 37.1 per cent of all social network users.
nstagram will be used by 14.4 million people this year, a growth of 18.2 per cent. Almost two-fifths of all social media users will be logging onto Instagram.
Source: eMarketer
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