Social media platforms and social messaging platforms and apps have a great role in our day-to-day life. Because nowadays most people use social media and social messaging platforms and apps, especially businesses and brands.
Brands and businesses want to promote their services and products on social media platforms, For this purpose to generate revenue, they run ads on social media platforms to generate qualified leads and sales for their businesses. As a result, they get great results. So social media is very important for everyone.
Although the latest statistics show that a person spends 2 hours + 25 minutes in a day on the internet and social media platforms averagely.
There’re many social media and social messaging apps and platforms, but you are going to know about there the top and most popular social media and social messaging platforms? This will help you to promote businesses’ products and services.
Table of Contents
Top Social Media Platforms
Here’s the list of top social media platforms and apps.
1. Facebook
Facebook is one of the most popular platforms and is the #1 social media platform that is used by 2.32 billion people, which is a very high number than the number of cars on the roads and airplanes in the air.
Facebook is launched by Mark Zuckerberg and his roommates. It is founded on 4 February 2004 (17 years ago). the Facebook employees number is 60,654 (31 March 2021).
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #7
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 2.32 Billion
Founders: —->>—->> Mark Zuckerburg And His Roommates
Founded: —->>—->> 4 February 2004
URL: —->>—->> facebook.com
2. Youtube
As we talk about the top and most popular social media platforms, youtube is one of them. Youtube is a video-sharing platform, acquired by Google in October 2006.
The amazing fact about Youtube is that users watch more than one billion hours of videos each day on youtube and upload 100 hours of content per minute to youtube.
By uploading the videos to youtube, the creators can earn money. Youtube has some requirements for monetizing youtube channels. Once your channel is eligible for Youtube Partner Program, then you will be able to run ads on your videos.
However, You can earn the money on youtube through affiliate marketing and sponsored videos.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #2
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 2 Billion
Founders: —->>—->> Chad Hurley; Steve Chen; Jawed Karim
Founded: —->>—->> February 14, 2005
URL: —->>—->> youtube.com
3. Instagram
Instagram is another photo and video-sharing social media platform that is added to the most popular social media platforms. It is a Facebook-owned company.
Instagram provides many features including photo and video editing tools.
The “Story” is the feature of Instagram that was used 500 million times in January 2019. Over 400 billion photos were uploaded in October 2015.
Instagram is the perfect platform for influencers. Many companies looking for Instagram influencers to promote their services and products by paying them because they engage the customers. It is an effective way of promoting services and products.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #22
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 1.047 Billion
Founders: —->>—->> Kevin Systrom
Founded: —->>—->> April 2012
URL: —->>—->> instagram.com
4. Tiktok
Tiktok is one of the most trending social media platforms. Many users of TikTok are teenagers. Tiktok is a video-sharing social media platform where users share small duration videos(15 sec- 1 min, 3 mins for specific users).
The Tiktok has many features but the most popular is the “For You” feature. For You is the feed of TikTok where TikTok suggests videos based on users’ activities. All Tiktokers are struggling to show their videos in the “For You”.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #71
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 1 Billion
Founders: —->>—->> Zhang Yiming
Founded: —->>—->> Initial Release On September 2016 And Stable Release On 31 March 2020
URL: —->>—->> tiktok.com
5. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is the B2B(Bussines to Bussines) and B2C (Bussines to Consumer) social media platform, also called “Professional Facebook”.
LinkedIn is most used for Jobs, the companies post the jobs and users apply for them.
It provides the “premium LinkedIn” where you can generate leads, learn profitable courses, and more.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #47
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 740 Million
Founders: —->>—->> Jean-Luc Vaillant, Allen Blue, Eric Ly, Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke,
Founded: —->>—->> 2002
URL: —->>—->> linkedin.com
6. Qzone
Qzone is a Chinese social networking site that provides many services including microblogging, Keeping dairies, sending photos, listening to music, watching videos, and more. The estimated monthly active users were 653 million in 2015.
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 653 Million In 2015
Owner: —->>—->> Tencent
Founded: —->>—->> 2005
URL: —->>—->> qzone.qq.com
7. Tumblr
Tumblr is easy to signup and free-to-use platform that offers many services including microblogging, and multimedia (photos, videos, text, documents) sharing. Tumblr is Mostly used in marketing, advertising, and small business industries.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #117
Users: —->>—->> 472 Million Registered Accounts
Founder: —->>—->> David Karp
Founded: —->>—->> February 2007
URL: —->>—->> tumblr.com
8. Pinterest
Pinterest is an American-based company and popular social media platform. Nowadays Pinterest is a trendy social media platform. It has more than 400 million monthly active users.
On Pinterest, you can share photos and videos with text. Pinterest is extremely good for generating sales and website traffic because the organic reach of Pinterest is very fast.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #126
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 400 Million
Founders: —->>—->> Ben Silberman, Even sharp, and Paul Sciarra
Founded: —->>—->> December 2009
URL: —->>—->> pinterest.com
9. Twitter
Twitter is a form of microblogging (It allows 280 characters per tweet) and is listed on the most popular social media platforms.
It serves worldwide and has 330 million monthly active users. Twitter provides “trending Hashtags” which you can use in tweets to reach more people.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #38
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 330 Million
Founders: —->>—->> Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone, Evan Williams
Founded: —->>—->> March 21, 2006
URL: —->>—->> twitter.com
10. Quora
Quora is an American-based company that is used for questions and answers. Quora is the biggest website in the question and answer category. It is available in multiple languages.
I suggest you build your brand and profile on quora. After building your brand and profile, you will generate more traffic to your website and blog.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #357
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 300 Million
Founders: —->>—->> Adam D’angles And Charlie Cheever
Founded: —->>—->> 25 June 2009
URL: —->>—->> quora.com
11. Reddit
Reddit is an American based company that use for Discussion, web content rating, and social news. It’s free to use and an easy to signup platform. It covers many topics like Science, news, religion, politics, fitness, sports, movies, video games, music, and image sharing. It has 430 million monthly active users.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #19
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 222 Million
Founders: —->>—->> Alexis Ohanian, Steve Huffman, Aaron Swartz
Founded: —->>—->> Initial Release On 23 June 2005
URL: —->>—->> reddit.com
12. Medium
Medium is an American publishing platform. It was launched in 2012. The Medium is developed by Evan Williams and It has 60 million monthly active users.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #138
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 60 Million
Founders: —->>—->> Evan Williams
Founded: —->>—->> 2012
URL: medium.com
13. Nextdoor
It’s a hyperlocal social networking platform. Nextdoor works in 11 countries: Germany, Italy, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Spain, Sweeden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #645
Users: —->>—->> 275,000
Founders: —->>—->> Prakash Janakiraman, Nirav Tolia, Sarah Leary, & David Wiesen
Founded: —->>—->> 2008
URL: nextdoor.com
Social Messaging Platforms & Apps
14. WhatsApp
WhatsApp is the most popular social messaging app where users can send videos, photos, documents, text, and other files. However, the users can voice calls and video calls to each other. It’s an American-based company acquired by the Meta company.
It had 2 billion active users in February 2020 worldwide. It handles billions of messages daily. The requirement for WhatsApp sign-up is a mobile number
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #57
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 2.5 Billion
Founders: —->>—->> Jan Koum, Brian Acton
Founded: —->>—->> 24 February 2004
URL: —->>—->> whatsapp.com
15. Messenger
Messenger is an American company that is used for social messaging, video calls, and audio calls. Now it’s a Facebook-owned company. Messenger is available in 111 languages.
After separating from Facebook, it had 1.2 billion users in April 2017. The message traffic increased in 2020 due to covid-19 quarantine.
The users can send many types of files like text messages, voice messages, videos, photos, links, PDFs, documents, and more.
Nowadays you can sign up for messenger without a Facebook account. You just need the phone number for the Messenger sign-up.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #573
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 1.3 Billion
Founded: —->>—->> August 9, 2011
Developer: —->>—->> Facebook, Inc.
URL: —->>—->> messenger.com
16. WeChat
Wechat is a free messaging, audio-calling, and video-calling platform. It’s a Chinese-based company. The active users of Wechat were 1 billion+ in 2018. It is available in 17 languages.
Wechat has many features and the main features of WeChat are voice messaging, text messaging, broadcast, video calls, conferencing, video and location sharing, videogames, and image sharing.
WeChat App Download Numbers: —->>—->> 100 Million+ Downloads
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 1.2 Billion In 2020
Founders: —->>—->> Allen Zhang
Founded: —->>—->> Initial 21 January 2011
URL: —->>—->> wechat.com
17. Telegram
Telegram is free to use as an instant messaging platform and app. It allows sharing of multimedia files with other users. It is available in 19 languages.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #110
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 500 Million
Founders: —->>—->> Nikolai Durov And Paul Durov
Founded: —->>—->> March 2013
URL: —->>—->> : telegram.org
18. Snapchat
Snapchat is another platform that comes with a lot of cool stuff features including photo and video editing, entertainment, games, news, and quizzes.
Alexa Ranking: —->>—->> #2607
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 293 Million
Founders: —->>—->> Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, Reggie Brown
Founded: —->>—->> September 2011
URL: —->>—->> snapchat.com
19. Imo
Imo is a free social messaging platform and app that is used for audio calls, video calls, and instant messaging. The Imo signup is very easy, you just need a phone number. IMO supports the group’s call with 20 participants.
IMO App Download Numbers: —->>—->> 500 Million+ Downloads
Monthly Active Users: —->>—->> 200 Million
Developer(s): —->>—->> PageBites
Founded: —->>—->> April 2007
URL: —->>—->> IMO
You should use these popular platforms for your business promoting and branding.
