Headlines include privacy breaches with alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party, a banning of the app by India Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and now, talks of a partial U.S. If any publicity is good publicity, then 2020 has been TikTok’s year. They no doubt have their work cut out for them as they continue to combat fake news and similar controversies on their platform. Twitter has been able to achieve profitability in the last two years, reporting net income figures of $1.2 and $1.5 billion in 20 respectively. Twitterīusy schedules don’t seem to faze Jack Dorsey who has not one, but two CEO jobs in Twitter and Square. The platform attracts a younger audience compared to Facebook and it has demonstrated an ability to remain versatile, specifically by implementing Instagram Stories and Reels. Instagram has been vital to Facebook’s success, since its $1 billion acquisition in 2012. The notion of community has taken on a different meaning in the digital age, and Reddit represents this transition with their ever-growing network of users. With 430 million MAUs relative to 330 million in 2018, the company continues to attract a larger audience.

While such an event has not yet materialized, Reddit’s success certainly has. There have been whispers of a Reddit IPO on Wall Street for some time now. As part of the Tencent Holdings conglomerate, they belong to the BATX group that is seen to lock horns with America’s Big Tech. The biggest social platform in China, WeChat has flourished, now holding a whopping 1.2 billion MAUs.

By the looks of it, the future of YouTube will be much more than just videos. Parent company Alphabet has invested in YouTube with new rollouts like YouTube Music (merged with what was once Google Music) and YouTube Premium-a bundled subscription-based platform providing music, ad-free content, and YouTube Originals. The platform raked in revenues of $15.1 billion in 2019, nearly double their figures in 2017. YouTube competes head on against traditional television and streaming programs for eyeballs. In recent times, the stock has advanced past the $20 mark, although there is still long-term unclarity around monetization and profitability. The stock price reached its nadir near $4 in 2018, reflecting investor concerns tied to the introduction of Instagram Stories. Snapchat and founder Evan Spiegel have had a bumpy road since their IPO in 2017. Facebook still possesses the largest cohort of users, inching closer to the 3 billion MAU mark-a breakthrough yet to be achieved by any company. Yet, its stock price continues to advance to new highs while the traditional economy faces less than rosy forecasts. A flurry of companies are boycotting Facebook’s ads, while the platform struggles to fend off the spread of misinformation. To put it mildly, Facebook has had its hands full. Here’s a closer look at individual social platforms, and their trials and tribulations: Facebook To begin, let’s take a look at how social networks compare in terms of monthly active users (MAUs)-an industry metric widely used to gauge the success of these platforms.

With an additional billion internet users projected to come online in the coming years, it’s possible that the social media universe could expand even further. The vast social media universe collectively now holds 3.8 billion users, representing roughly 50% of the global population. Social media has seeped into virtually all aspects of modern life. Visualizing the Social Media Universe in 2020

Power of social media infographic