LEARN MORE ABOUT THESE POPULAR
SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
This is easily the
largest social networking site in the world and one of the most widely used.
And, Facebook was perhaps the first that surpassed the landmark of 1 billion
user accounts.
Apart from the ability
to network with friends and relatives, you can also access different Facebook
apps to sell online and you can even market or promote your business, brand and
products by using paid Facebook ads.
Number of active users per month: 1.59 billion approximately
Despite having been
acquired by Facebook in 2014, this instant messaging platform exists as an
independent entity.
It arrived on the
scene much later than Facebook, but has been able to capture the imagination of
millions of people across the world by giving them the ability to communicate
and share instantly with individuals and groups. The WhatsApp call feature is
just the icing on the cake!
Number of active users per month: 1 billion approximately
Tencent QQ (more
popularly known as QQ) is an instant messaging (chat-based) social media
platform. It became international (with more than 80 countries using it), after
it was launched in China.
It can be used to stay in touch with friends through texts,
video calls and voice chats. It even has a built-in translator to translate
your chats. To find out more, head over to our Chinese Social Media stats page.
Number of active users per month: 853 million approximately
This is an all-in-one communications app for messaging and
calling (similar to WhatsApp) that enables you to connect with the people of
your choice. It was also developed by Tencent in China and can easily work
alongside QQ. As per the BI intelligence report, the number of WeChat users are fast catching up with the
number of WhatsApp users.
Related article: WeChat keyboard shortcuts
Number of active users per month: 697 million approximately
Like QQ and WeChat,
QZone is yet another social networking service developed by Tencent. It enables
you to share photos, watch videos, listen to songs, write blogs, maintain
diaries and so on. It also empowers you to choose the accessories and customize
the look and feel of your QZone webpages.
Number of active users per month: 640 million approximately
Having been owned by Yahoo since 2013, Tumblr serves as a social
media cum micro blogging platform that can be used to find and follow
things that you like. You can also use it to post anything, including
multimedia, to a short-form blog. Moreover, it gives you the flexibility to
customize almost everything.
Number of active users per month: 555 million approximately
Instagram was launched
as a unique social networking platform that was completely based on sharing
photos and videos. This photo sharing social networking app thus enables you to
capture the best moments of your life, with your phone’s camera or any other
camera, and convert them into works of art.
This is possible because Instagram allows you to apply multiple
filters to your photos and you can easily post them to other popular social
networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. It is now part of the Facebook
empire. Learn how to grow your Instagram
audience.
Read more on Instagram Tools to help you increase social engagement and audience
numbers.
Number of active users per month: 400 million approximately
This social networking site enables you to post short text
messages (called tweets), containing a limited number of characters (up to
140), to convey your message to the world. With the growing craze for online
shopping, Twitter also makes it possible to promote your businesses and even
shop directly through tweets. Learn how to create the perfect Twitter profile.
Number of active users per month: 320 million approximately
9
– GOOGLE+
Owned by the tech
giant Alphabet (Google), this interest-based social networking platform enables
you to stay in touch with people by sharing messages, photos, videos, useful
links to sites and so on. It also extends support for video conferencing
through Hangouts and allows businesses to promote their brands and products
through Google+ business pages.
Number of active users: 300 million approximately
Offered by Baidu of
China, a search engine company, Baidu Tieba (known as Postbar internationally)
is a social forum network based on the keyword searches in the Baidu search
engine. This discussion forum works on the unique concept of allowing you to create
a social network group for a specific topic, using the search, or even to join
an existing online social group.
Number of active users per month: 300 million approximately
Skype, owned by
Microsoft, is one of the most popular communication-based social networking
platforms. It allows you to connect with people through voice calls, video
calls (using a webcam) and text messaging. You can even conduct group
conference calls. And, the best part is that Skype-to-Skype calls are free and
can be used to communicate with anyone, located in any part of the world, over
the internet.
Number of active users per month: 300 million approximately
This multi-lingual
social platform, which is available in more than 30 languages, is known for its
instant text messaging and voice messaging capabilities. You can also share
photos and videos and audio messages, using Viber. It offers you the ability to
call non-Viber users through a feature named Viber Out.
Number of active users per month: 249 million approximately
This is a highly
popular microblogging social platform in China that is known for its hybrid mix
of Twitter’s and Facebook’s features.
Number of active users per month: 222 million approximately
LINE is a globally
available messaging social network that enables you to share photos, videos,
text messages and even audio messages or files. In addition, it allows you to
make voice and video calls at any time of the day.
Number of active users per month: 215 million approximately
This is an image
messaging social platform that enables you to chat with friends by using
pictures. It allows you to explore news and even check out live stories that
are happening around the world.
Number of active users per month: 200 million approximately
YY is a major
video-based social networking platform in China that enables group video chats.
In such chats, more than 100,000 members can watch a single person doing an
activity. Such an activity can be anything from giving a tutorial video to
singing karaoke, which helps the users earn virtual currency that they can
later convert into cash.
Number of active users per month: 122 million approximately
VK is one of the
largest social networking platforms in Russia and has quite similar features to
Facebook.
Number of active users per month: 100 million approximately
This is a photo
sharing and visual bookmarking social media site or app that enables you to
find new ideas for your projects and save them. So, you can do DIY tasks or
home improvement projects, plan your travel agenda and so on by using
Pinterest.
Number of active users per month: 100 million approximately
LinkedIn is easily one
of the most popular professional social networking sites or apps and is
available in over 20 languages. It is used across the globe by all types of
professionals and serves as an ideal platform to connect with different
businesses, locate and hire ideal candidates, and more. It boasts over 400
million members.
Number of active users per month: 100 million approximately
This instant messaging
network is similar to WhatsApp and is available across platforms in more than
eight languages. However, Telegram has always focused more on the privacy and
security of the messages you send over the internet by using its platform. So,
it empowers you to send messages that are encrypted and self-destructive. This
encryption feature has only just been made available for WhatsApp, whereas
Telegram has always provided it.
Number of active users per month: 100 million approximately
This social media
platform enables you to submit content and later vote for the content. The
voting determines whether the content moves up or down, which is ultimately
organized based on the areas of interest (known as subreddits).
Number of active users per month: 100 million approximately
Taringa is one of the
largest social networking platform in Latin America and allows users to share
their experiences, content and more.
Number of active users: 75 million approximately
This is a local
search- and discovery-based social media platform that enables you to find the
ideal places (based on your location) to go to with friends and loved ones. It
also gives appropriate search results for the best food outlets, night
entertainment places and more in your area. The social networking feature is
now available in a separate app named Swarm.
Number of active users: 40 million approximately
This is the largest
social networking site in China and is literally a platform for everyone. It
has been highly popular with the youth due to its similarity to Facebook,
as it allows users to easily connect with others, quickly share thoughts and
posts, and even update their moods.
Number of active users per month: More than 30 million
approximately
This is a great social
media site based on friendship and dating and, in 2011, it acquired another
social networking platform called hi5. It enables you to socialise with others
through games, browsing profiles, common interests and so on.
Number of active users: 25 million approximately
This dating-based
social networking site operates in more than 200 countries. It shares details
about people nearby in your area and even about people whom you may have bumped
into in real life.
Number of active users per month: 20 million approximately
This is a
music-focused social networking site and provides an interactive and
user-submitted network of friends. It also provides blogs, groups, personal
profiles, pictures, videos and so on.
Number of active users: 20 million approximately
StumbleUpon is an
intelligent social networking platform that finds or discovers content and recommends
the same to its users. You are thus empowered to discover webpages, images,
videos and so on and then rate them as per your interest and taste.
Number of active users: 25 million approximately
the-dots.com is
a networking platform that helps everyone involved in the creative process
connect, collaborate and commercialise helping build a stronger, more
profitable and diverse creative sector. Born out of a genuine passion to make
the creative industries more open and meritocratic, founder Pip Jamieson
launched the platform in the UK in 2014.
This is a community-based
social networking site, especially for those who live in New York. It offers an
online magazine to target teens through fashion tips, advice and chat. It also
allows young adults to let everyone know about their skills and interests.
Skyrock is a French
social networking site that offers its users a free and personal web space to
create and post blogs, add profiles and exchange messages. Apart from French
and English, it is also available in five other languages.
32
– DELICIOUS
It is known for being
the leading social bookmarking service. Having been launched in 2003, Delicious
is ideal for storing, sharing and discovering web bookmarks. It also allows its
users to tag them with any keywords.
Snapfish is a
web-based photo sharing social networking site that offers unlimited storage to
its members for uploading photos. You can thus put away your storage space
concerns for your vast collection of images.
This is the ideal
social networking platform for musicians and professionals to connect with
others in the music industry. It offers different tools to musicians to manage
their careers and offers them the right access to their music industry partners
and fans.
This is an American
social networking site for people who love movies and want to connect with
like-minded people by sharing their movie reviews and ratings. Its users are
likely to learn about movies and get information about new movies.
This social media site
helps activists connect around the globe with similar individuals, businesses
and organisations that are making an impact on society. It also encourages
people to lead a healthy and green lifestyle.
This ad-supported
social networking website is a community for mothers and mothers-to-be that
enables them to get support and advice on various topics, such as pregnancy,
fashion, health and food. It also helps them learn from the experiences of
other mothers.
Ravelry is a
community-based social network that is targeted at people who are interested in
fibre arts, such as spinning, knitting, weaving and crocheting. Such people can
share their own collections, different ideas and learn from the experiences of
other members for better collaboration possibilities.
This is a private
social networking platform for neighbourhoods in the US. The objective is
pretty simple: allowing users to get connected with the people in their area.
Wayn is a travel- and
lifestyle-based social networking platform and offers its users the ability to
discover where to go, what to do and how to meet like-minded people to share
their experiences.
This social gaming community
can easily be accessed on the move from any mobile device. With this mobile
gaming-based social network, users can socialise, create avatars, play games
and purchase virtual goods.
YouTube is the world’s
largest video-sharing social networking site that enables users to upload and
share videos, view them, comment on them and like them. This social network is
accessible across the globe and even enables users to create a YouTube channel
where they can upload all their personally recorded videos to showcase to their
friends and followers.
This is an
entertainment-based, short-form video sharing social media site where members
can easily share videos that are six seconds long. It belongs to the Twitter
family and allows easy integration with other social networking platforms to
share and watch videos.
Classmates allows
users to find, connect and keep in touch with friends and acquaintances from
school and college. It is also possible for users to upload their yearbook from
their school years.
This is an online
genealogy social platform which supports more than 42 languages and empowers
its users to create family trees, upload and browse through family photos and
manage their own family history. It could also be used by people to find their
ancestors and get more information about them.
Viadeo is an online
business-based social networking site that helps business people, mostly those
in Europe, connect with one another. It is available in about different
languages.
This professional
social networking site offers features that are similar to LinkedIn’s features,
with its main users based in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. However, it is
unique in the sense that it enables closed group discussions between the
members of a certain company or business.
This blogging-based
social networking platform hosts weblogs, photo blogs and social networking
profiles for its users.
This San
Francisco-based social networking site is available in Russia, as Zhivoy
Zhurnal or Zhe Zhe. It enables users to maintain a diary, blog or journal,
along with privacy controls.
Friendster was
previously a social networking site to find friends and stay in touch, but is
now a social gaming network for game lovers in Asia.
This comedy video
social website is aimed at bringing together the funniest videos from the web.
Celebrities follow this social platform a lot and it enables users to share,
upload and rate videos.
Gaia Online is an
anime-themed social networking and forums-based website. It gives users access
to avatars, virtual world, games and so on.
This photo-sharing
social media site, which is available in more than 20 languages, is ideal for
users’ daily dose of inspiration or motivation. It enables users to view and
share highly inspirational images with their friends.
This social media site
allows users to share content on the basis of their personal interests in the
form of videos, photos and journals. It also seamlessly integrates with
Facebook.
DeviantArt is regarded
as the largest online social networking community for art lovers and artists.
It enables users to take photos of their artwork and share them with others.
This is another highly
popular photo-sharing website. It serves as a platform to upload numerous high
quality images, especially by photographers or people who love photography. It
is also an efficient online photo management and sharing service.
Formerly known as
myYearbook, MeetMe is aimed at users who want to find new friends and chat with
them. This makes it highly popular among teens and young students.
This social networking
portal enables you to find groups of like-minded people, who have similar
interest to you, near your locality (anywhere in the world). It also
facilitates offline group meetings and you can become a part of such groups and
their discussions.
Tout is a social
networking cum micro-blogging platform that allows you to view and share videos
that are 15 seconds long. The videos that are shared on this platform are known
as touts.
This is a popular
Japanese social networking service that has around 20 million active users. It
enables you to connect with your friends and loved ones in a convenient way and
even based on your areas of interest.
This Chinese social
networking site has something for registered as well as unregistered users. It
enables registered users to record information and create content based on
music, films, books and events in the cities of China. Unregistered users of
Douban can find reviews and ratings of books, music and movies.
I hope that the above list of social networking portals, which
are suitable for different categories like gaming, making friends, dating,
photo sharing and blogging, proves valuable to you.
Sign up here with your email
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon