So what are the top social media sites 2016? We have selected 5 of the most popular social media platforms. Our sole criterion for selection is the traffic or the number of users on each of these sites. Now, just because a social media site has a large number of users, doesn’t necessarily make it better than the others – there are many smaller, niche social media sites that serve a smaller section of the population, but offer amazing user experience.
The social media sites in our list are all unique and are a part of popular culture. Let’s look at the top social media sites 2016.
Don’t believe us, believe the numbers – As of November 2015, Facebook has 1.55 billion users. Facebook users can be found in every country in the world, except for North Korea, which has cordoned itself off from the internet. It is today unusual for someone not to be on Facebook. It’s hard to believe that it’s been only 13 years since Facebook was launched by a precocious 18-year old named Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg is today one of the richest and most influential men in the world and the social network launched by him has a market cap of $303 billion at the time of this writing. Facebook’s rise has been extraordinary, indeed.
The Facebook-owned photo sharing social media site Instagram has moved very fast up the popularity charts. Instagram recently had its 400 millionth user and has risen above Twitter, to take the no. 2 spot, behind its parent network, Facebook. Instagram’s rise has been quite phenomenal. It is considered to be a high value social network, which is loved by celebrities such as David Beckham and Caitlyn Jenner. Gradually, steps are being taken to monetize Instagram, and turn it into a profitable source of income for Facebook.
LinkedIn is a solid and reliable social network that is directed at job seekers and professionals and at companies looking to hire them. It’s a social network for adults, one that connects professionals with other professionals through a network of connections. Being on LinkedIn establishes the authenticity of a professional. There are over 380 million people around the world who use LinkedIn. The company is doing well financially as well, with a market valuation of $32 billion.
Twitter has been in the news recently for dropping 10 percent of its workforce after suffering another massive financial loss. Twitter is one of the most popular social networks with over 320 million users, but a highly beleaguered one, because of the complete failure of the Twitter management to monetize its services. Still, Twitter is perhaps the most influential social network, more so than even Facebook. Twitter is used extensively by political campaigns all over the world. World leaders such as President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have a massive Twitter following, which translates into votes as well.
Google+
Officially, Google+ has over 2.5 billion users – but that’s because everyone who has a Gmail account is a member of Google+ as well. But in reality, not more than 300 million people use Google+ actively. It’s safe to say that Google+ hasn’t really taken off as a competitor to Facebook. It is largely seen as an extension of Gmail by most people and not really as a social network that they want to be a part of. However, because of how well integrated Google+ is with other Google services such as Google Maps, Google Places and as well as Google’s search engine, it offers a huge value for businesses and helps them get valuable online visibility.
