A study made by Pew Research Center has revealed that for 2021, Youtube is the most popular social media site among adults in the USA. Of all the participants, 81% have given Youtube as an answer.
About Youtube
Youtube is an online video platform and probably the most popular one. It contains millions of video content and materials for everyone to view. This characteristic allows the site to satisfy everyone – no matter their age or taste.
Aside from that, users can upload their videos and be content creators themselves. Whether they are vlogs or short indie films, they will have a place on the platform. What’s more, is that the videos can be monetized. This means you can use Youtube as your source of income. Monetizing can be done once your channel has reached a certain amount of subscribers and amassed a total of 4000 minutes of watch time.
Attaining these numbers is very hard, but perhaps it is why people spend so much time on the site. Thus, making the platform very popular.
Ranking of Different Social Media Platforms
According to the study, 81% of adults in the USA preferred being on Youtube rather than on other social media sites. It was 12% more than the second placer Facebook which scored 69%. Instagram followed the ranking, and Youtube has it beaten with a large margin. The photograph-focused social media site only scored 40%, half of what Youtube has attained. It shows a huge difference considering that we are talking about the first and third placers. The rankings went on as follows. Pinterest placed fourth with a 31% preference. Linkedin closely followed with 28%. Then, Snapchat came with 25%. Surprisingly, Twitter ranked too far behind. It was tied with Whatsapp in 7th place, with only 23% of adults saying they prefer those sites. Next in line are Tiktok with 21% adult preference, Reddit with 18%, and last, Nextdoor with 13%.
Increasing Popularity
The research center has revealed that over the years, the usage of these social media sites has remained practically unmoving. However, the two websites seem to refuse to go into stagnation. These are Youtube and Reddit. Reports show that the two have been steadily gaining more popularity since 2019. Creators on YouTube don’t want to miss out on this growing audience and resort to buying YouTube views to help capture this group.
Youtube’s case gained a score of 81% this year when it only had 73% in 2019. This is a total of an 18% increase in adult preference when it comes to social media sites. While Reddit has gotten to 18% from a mere 11%, it is still too far for it to be considered a threat to Youtube’s ranking.
This increase in stats compared to the other sites’ inaction is evidence that Youtube is headed in the right direction. This is proof that they are doing something right, something that soothes the tastes of US adults. Whatever it is, they should keep it going if they want to retain their position.
Statistical Comparisons
To understand more about the US adult’s preferences on social media, let us compare the numbers gained by the top different websites.
First, we will tackle the top two sites. We will talk about Facebook vs. Youtube in terms of how different demographics see them. Then, we will compare how frequently these social media gets visited every day. I hope you like the numbers because we are about to see loads of them.
Facebook VS Youtube
For adults in the US who are 18 to 29 years old, 95% say they use Youtube while 70% say they use Facebook. Though not on the top two, it is important to note how Instagram did in this demographic. Instagram got a score almost similar to FB with 71%, but only for ages 19 to 29. Youtube has bested the two of them. But it is worth noting how both Youtube and FB are more popular with 18-year-olds than Instagram. Meanwhile, Instagram is slightly more popular than Facebook for 19 to 29-year-old adults.
For adults ages 30 to 49, 91% say they use Youtube. On the other hand, only 77% say they use Facebook. 73% of US adults ages 50 to 64 say they use Facebook, while no stats was provided for Youtube.
Lastly, 49% of US adults ages 65 and older say they use YouTube, while 50% of them say they use Facebook.
Using those numbers, we can say that in terms of popularity to the oldest of the bunch, Facebook slightly beats Youtube.
Daily Usage
Surprisingly, only 54% of YouTube users say they visit the site daily, with only 36% of them visiting several times a day.
On the other hand, Facebook has gotten impressive numbers. 70% of Facebook users say that they visit the site daily, with 49% visiting several times a day.
Even Instagram has gotten better results than Youtube. 59% of all Instagram users say they visit the site regularly. 73% of this fraction came from the youngest adults, ages 18-29 years old. In addition to that, 53% of these young audiences say that they visit the site more than once each day.
Finally, Twitter gains 46% usage from US adults every day.
Looking at these results, we can conclude that although Youtube wins in terms of popularity, it loses to other sites in terms of activeness.
Niche
Another factor that we should consider when interpreting these numbers is the social media site’s purpose. Why is the site created? What are they used for? These things affect their popularity and activeness.
Let’s take Nextdoor, the least popular one, as an example. 17% of adults living in urban areas and 14% of those living in suburban areas are more likely to say they use the site. However, only 2% of those living in rural areas say they use Nextdoor.
Nextdoor is a social media where you can connect with your neighbors. This is used for borrowing tools, selling furniture, and hearing the local news. With this is in mind, we can understand why the site has gained such low numbers.
LinkedIn is also a good example. Results have shown that the higher education a person has attained, the more likely it is that they will use LinkedIn. 51% of US adults with Bachelor’s Degree say they use LinkedIn. 28% with only some college experience do the same. At the same time, only 10% of those who have a high school diploma visits the site.
These sites are not without purpose, but they are useful only to specific groups of people. Thus, cutting a large portion of what could have been their users. Obviously, for these reasons, they will not win a popularity poll.
Summary of Findings
In terms of sheer popularity to adults in the US, Youtube wins the poll. Facebook closely followed, and then Instagram. In terms of daily activity, however, Facebook and Instagram beat Youtube.
The findings used in this article came from a nationally representative survey of 1,502 U.S. adults. The said survey was conducted via telephone from January 25 to February 8, 2021.
Date: May 12, 2021 / Categories: YouTube, / Author: Joy P
