Digital Freedom

That would suggest total user numbers might be less relevant than engagement. Sensor Tower data show while time spent across top social media apps has increased over the past few years, some apps are more addictive than others. Time spent on TikTok has increased 26% from the first quarter of 2020 through the third quarter of this year, that data show; while Meta’s Facebook and Instagram have also logged double-digit percentage increases. Over the same period, time spent on Snapchat and Twitter declined 26% and 6%, respectively.

Subscribers might never be as lucrative to social media platforms as their advertisers, but the sector will struggle to grow without them.