Inventory of US Social Media in Q1 2023, Growth of TikTok Users Slows Down

US Social Media Inventory Q1 2023 TikTok User Growth Slows

BusinessDialogue learned that SensorTower recently released the Q1 2023 US social media trends, analyzing the user growth, engagement, and advertising revenue of major social media platforms in the US. The data shows that due to the overall slowdown in US social media user growth, user engagement and advertising monetization have become more important competitive factors.

US social media Q1 user growth

After reaching a growth peak in 2020 and 2021, US social media user growth continued to slow down. SensorTower’s data shows that in Q1, Snapchat was the only social media application with double-digit YoY growth in users, with a 13% YoY growth in daily active users (DAUs), which is closest to the growth rate in the same period of 2022, reaching 15% among all social media applications.

Below is a comparison of the top social media applications in Q1 2023 in terms of daily active users (DAUs):

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• Snapchat +13%, compared to Q1 2022: +15%

• Instagram +5%, compared to Q1 2022: +18%

• TikTok +4%, compared to Q1 2022: +43%

• Facebook +1%, compared to Q1 2022: +4%

• Twitter -3%, compared to Q1 2022: +11%

Twitter is the only social media application with declining user growth. As smartphone user penetration rates approach saturation, social media applications are facing continuous competition for consumer attention, and user engagement and advertising monetization are the basis for increasing user numbers.

US social media Q1 user engagement trends

SensorTower data shows that although TikTok faces the risk of being banned in the US, it is still one of the social media platforms with the highest engagement, but its YoY growth in user engagement is slowing down, with the total duration of user usage increasing by only 2%.

The data shows that Facebook and Instagram under Meta saw significant growth in user usage time in the first quarter of 2023. Facebook increased by 12%, with a total daily usage time of 1.3 billion hours, while Instagram increased by 16% with a total daily usage time of 935 million hours.

Snapchat’s user engagement remained stable in the first quarter, with a total daily usage time of 116 million hours, a 2% year-on-year increase and a flat month-on-month change. On the other hand, Twitter encountered significant difficulties in user engagement, with a total daily usage time of 99 million hours, a 6% year-on-year decrease and a 5% month-on-month decrease, with the lowest engagement among all platforms.

It is worth noting that the engagement trend shows that Snapchat is more like a messaging application than a photo/video sharing platform.

In the first quarter of 2023, Snapchat users in the United States had an average of 120 sessions per week, while Instagram had 104, TikTok had 82, Facebook had 79, and Twitter had 58. Snapchat’s higher weekly session frequency is similar to messaging apps like WhatsApp, with its users recording 116 sessions per week in the first quarter of 2023.

PowerUser data from SensorTower also shows that Instagram has the strongest stickiness among all social media apps. As of February 2023, 44% of users of this social media app opened it every day. The second highest is TikTok, with 33% of users frequently visiting the app, followed by Facebook at 31%, Snapchat at 28%, and Twitter at 20%.

Q1 advertising revenue trends for US social media

SensorTower data shows that many of the issues facing the US social media advertising industry in 2022 still exist in 2023, with economic uncertainty causing most major US brands to be cautious in their social media advertising spending.

However, despite the cautious macro environment, brands are still seeking to optimize their marketing actions and social media advertising channels are changing, resulting in changes in advertising revenue for different social media platforms.

As TikTok remains the social media platform with the highest user engagement, it has become a major channel for American advertisers and its popularity among American advertisers is increasing.

According to Pathmatics’ data on American advertisers, in the first quarter of 2023, nine out of the top ten advertising categories on TikTok invested more advertising fees compared to the first quarter of 2022, and advertising spending increased by an average of 46% year-on-year.

In addition, TikTok’s share of social media advertising spending in the largest category in the United States has increased, with advertisers in packaged consumer goods (CPG), food and beverage services, media, and health and wellness sectors shifting most of their budgets to TikTok’s short video ads.

As of early April, data showed that there were approximately three million monthly Snapchat+ subscribers. Although these numbers look large, in 2022, in-app purchases (IAP) revenue from Snapchat+ subscriptions accounted for less than 3% of total advertising revenue in the United States. During the same period, Snapchat’s advertising revenue in the United States reached $3.1 billion.

Due to unfavorable competition, a weak advertising market, and, more specifically, internal conflicts after acquisition, Twitter has always been vulnerable to advertiser loss.

According to Pathmatics’ data on American advertisers, in the first quarter of 2023, six out of the top ten advertisers on Twitter significantly reduced their spending on the platform compared to the first quarter of 2022, with an average year-on-year decrease of 53% in advertising spending for these six advertisers.

Editor✎   Ashley/AMZ123

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