The Numbers Behind Facebook and Instagram

Analyzing Social Media’s Two Main Players Across Four Quantifiable Factors

When it comes to advertising your business online and across social media, you’ll be hard-pressed to find two more impactful platforms than Facebook and Instagram. Both sites, which are ironically both owned and developed by the same company, feature a staggering 2.3 billion combined daily users.

For context, that’s about 30% of the Earth’s population.

While it’s somewhat unfortunate that Mark Zuckerberg’s company has such an overwhelming grasp around the world, the reach of his two platforms only provide businesses with more opportunities for engagement and growth; as a digital marketer, I can’t help but stagger at the scope of Facebook and Instagram.

Here are the astonishing statistics behind Facebook and Instagram’s magnitude:

1. Daily Users

As previously mentioned, Facebook and Instagram’s daily user count is impressive. When we break the 2.3 billion combined users down, it’s interesting to see that Facebook is responsible for about 1.8 billion of those accounts - Instagram can only claim 500 million daily visits. While Instagram’s daily user base pales in comparison to Facebook, it’s more than double that of Twitter and Snapchat.

2. Time Spent Online

One of the most interesting analytics involved in social media management is ‘time spent online,’ a metric which allows us to look at how long people are staying on Facebook and Instagram once they open them. According to a recent study, users are spending an average of 38 minutes a day on Facebook and 28 minutes a day on Instagram.

3. User Interaction

As a business on social media, user interaction is everything. You’re not on Facebook or Instagram to make friends, you’re trying to grow your brand and reach new audiences.

While Facebook has boasted significantly larger engagement statistics so far, the opposite is true in regards to user interaction. According to a recent report conducted by Socialbankers, for every user interaction Facebook generates, Instagram generates four.

4. Advertising Money Spent

While platforms like Facebook and Instagram may have been originally created for networking and socializing purposes, it’s no secret they’ve become unbelievably lucrative operations in their own right. When you’re selling advertising space that over a quarter of the world has access to, you can really charge whatever you want.

In 2020, Facebook generated an insane $25.44 billion in advertising revenue. In 2021 so far, Instagram has generated $18.16 billion.