Ä¢¹½AV

Elon Musk has added several profitability-focused policies to X since purchasing the platform, then known at Twitter, which makes it likely that Grok, even if available to non-Premium users, will require a subscription. Challenges ahead: Conflict with app stores could present another hurdle for a Grok app.

That puts it in the ballpark of X (formerly Twitter), which had 53.8 million users in 2024, LinkedIn (80.7 million users), and Pinterest (85.4 million users). For context, we estimate that Instagram had more than double the number of WhatsApp users in the US in 2024, at 143.2 million. And WhatsApp’s US user growth was relatively tepid at a 2.1% uptick YoY.

The other top three are Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok. Instagram remains popular, especially for reaching younger B2B buyers. Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has made it less popular with B2B marketers. TikTok can be effective for content discovery, but its uncertain future and algorithmic preference for repetitive content make it less reliable for B2B.

Snapchat and X (formerly Twitter) have been losing time since 2023, and Facebook has largely trended down since 2018. But TikTok will lose user attention for the first time this year—albeit just 1 minute. These platform-level losses explain why social network time overall looks shaky. Click here to view the forecasts for US time spent with social networks by platform.

TikTok has been improving its time-to-revenues performance ratio, though, unlike Snapchat, Reddit, and X (formerly Twitter), which for the most part, haven’t been shrinking the gaps shown below. Click here to view the full forecasts for US time spent with social networks by platform and US social network ad spending by company.

The site began as a Twitter research initiative from then-CEO Jack Dorsey and spun out into an independent platform in 2021. Bluesky’s decentralized structure attracted users of X during the latter’s brief ban in Brazil, but its popularity hasn’t faded since the ban was lifted.

Smaller outlets have benefited as well; EUobserver received 3,800 unique visitors from Bluesky (with 3,300 followers) compared to 1,320 from X (with 203,000 followers) in a recent week, and independent tech outlet Aftermath reports its Twitter-to-Bluesky referral ratio has improved from 9-to-1 to nearly 2-to-1 in just three months. Why it matters: Platform policies are reshaping publisher strategies.

Latin America’s digital revolution is marching full steam ahead, with consumers spending more than a third of their day online. As social commerce and retail media propel the region’s digital economy to new heights, the runway for growth remains long.​

Top-line time spent with media will grow very little in the US going forward, making it essential to identify which formats and platforms are winning the newly zero-sum competition for consumer attention.

Not everyone gets news from creators and influencers. But alternative voices, especially podcasters, hold a lot of sway over key demographics, including Gen Z, men, and consumers who feel marginalized by mainstream media.

Bluesky, the rival service spun up by former Twitter owner Jack Dorsey, recently tallied 15 million users, with 1 million users joining in the last week. Threads’ plunge into advertising could offer advertisers a less contentious option to X, especially as Musk prepares to co-lead government efficiency for the new Trump administration.

As social media strengthens its grip on consumers’ digital lives in 2025, political polarization, regulation, and a desire for deeper personalization will shake up the landscape.