Each social media platform serves a different purpose to attract different content preferences. Users visit social media sites where they find the most relevant content of their type or fulfill their needs. The likeness of the audience sets the stage for the social media platforms to gain popularity. In 2025, there is a tight race among digital platforms.
Currently, Facebook holds the top position, however, the changing habits of users’ content consumption is accelerating the growth of YouTube and TikTok. These are among the most popular social media platforms with an amazing billion dollars revenue.
Let us explore user growth, monetization plans, owners’ names and their background stories of world leading platforms.
Facebook is the world’s largest social media platform with 3.07 billion monthly users. In this platform, other than making social networks, users discover and promote brands. The meta-owned platform offers various features such as creating and joining groups, events, marketplace, and many others.
Even after years, Facebook is ruling the market and still growing. Compared to last year, Meta gained 70 million new users, marking a 3% increase.
- Monthly Users: 3.07 billion monthly active users.
- Net Value: $1.77 trillion USD
- Monetization plans: Ads, Facebook Marketplace, Affiliate links, Selling online courses.
- Monthly income: $14.1 billion
- Daily active users: 2.11 billion
- Owner name: Meta Platforms, Inc.
A brief history
Facebook was launched in 2004 and has gained popularity among users because of its interactive interface and new features. The platform engaged users in an addiction. In the early days of Facebook, the current CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, worked with five of his friends. Their names were Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes. The social media giant grew, and all other friends of Zuckerberg left the company for different reasons. However, Zuckerberg led the company, which is now known as Meta Platforms.
YouTube
YouTube has achieved massive growth in the past years. Now, almost half of the world uses this video sharing platform. The video sharing platform achieved more popularity after introducing “YouTube Shorts”. People love watching short reels on their smartphones. However, YouTube allows users to watch long and short videos on its platform. Recently, the world’s largest video site, tightened its policies to promote high quality content creation. The strategic move of the digital video platform will also help it increase usability in the coming future.
The availability of a wide range of content solidifies YouTube market position. Moreover, the digital platform uses advanced machine learning algorithms to understand its users’ preferences for delivering personalized content. Such provision of highly relevant content helps the social media platform to maintain its top position.
- Monthly Users: 2.70 billion
- Net Value: $200 billion USD
- Monetization plans: Video AdSense, Diverse Ad formats, Channel membership, Affiliate marketing.
- Monthly income: $2.98 billion
- Daily active users: 122 million daily active users
- Owner name: Alphabet Inc.
A brief history
Three former employees of PayPal, an online payment system, created YouTube in 2005. Their names were Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim. At that time, the creation of a video sharing site was a new idea and rapidly became popular among content creators. After the launch, within one year, there were 65,000 daily uploads and the platform was getting 100 million views per day. As a strategic move, Google, the world’s largest search engine, bought YouTube in November 2006, for $1.65 billion.
WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app across the globe. The Meta-owned messaging app is famous for end-to-end encryption, simple layout, and reliability. Over time, it has become one of the most trusted messaging platforms for personal and business use. Since 2021, more than 800 million new users have joined the messaging platform. The figure highlights a strong growth, especially in countries like India, Brazil and Indonesia.
- Monthly Users: 3.1 billion
- Net Value: $1.77 trillion USD
- Monetization plans: Ads in the “updates” tab (sooner to come), Channel subscriptions, Affiliate marketing, WhatsApp Business API and Product catalogs.
- Monthly income: $200 million USD
- Daily active users: 400-500 million
- Owner name: Meta Platforms, Inc.
A brief history
Initially WhatsApp was launched as an iPhone app by Jan Koum and Brian Acton, allowing users to update their status in 2009. Later, it evolved as a complete messaging application on users’ demand. In 2011, the messaging application also added a group chat feature and voice messaging feature in 2013. The messaging app gained huge popularity. Later, in 2014 Facebook, the social media giant, bought the messaging app for $19 billion.
Instagram has also evolved as one of the most influential social media platforms. Features like sharing stories, reels and visual content fueled its rapid growth. The user base of the visual social platform grew by 8-9% in 2024.
- Monthly Users: 2 billion
- Net Value: $200 billion USD
- Monetization plans: Advertising, creator tools, and eCommerce, creators earn through subscriptions and virtual gifts.
- Monthly income: $5.61 billion USD
- Daily active users: 500 million
- Owner name: Meta Platforms, Inc.
A brief history
In 2010, Instagram launched a photo-sharing application that allowed users to add filters to their photos. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were the founders. The rapid growth of the digital platform caught the eye of Facebook, now Meta. The tech giant bought it for $1 billion USD in 2012. Since then, the platform has evolved into a dynamic video, messaging, and commerce hub.
TikTok
TikTok revolutionized the trends that millions of people started following across the globe. The “For You Page” algorithm of TikTok is one of the key factors that drives its success. It provides its users with highlights of personalized videos from known and unknown creators. The viral video platform has become one of the major sources of entertainment for its audience. From music to fashion and slang, the short-form video hub molds social behaviors.
- Monthly Users: 1.59 billion
- Net Value: $100 billion USD
- Monetization plans: Ads, content rewards program, Live Gifts, TikTok Shop, Sponsorships and selling digital products.
- Monthly income: $2.76 billion USD
- Daily active users: 1.2 billion
- Owner name: ByteDance Ltd
A brief history
TikTok started its journey in 2016 and achieved remarkable success in a short time. It was founded by Zhang Yiming in China. Initially, it was called Douyin but that was for the Chinese market. Later, Douyin was launched as TikTok for the international market. In 2017, ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, also bought Musical.ly. This move boosted TikTok’s popularity further.
LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media platforms, especially designed for professionals. The professional networking platform supports professional networking, career growth, and business connections. A well-crafted profile reflects a strong and credible professional image. It is a very helpful platform for individuals seeking jobs and organizations hunting talent.
- Monthly Users: 310 million
- Net Value: $120 billion USD
- Monetization plans: Creators earn through offering consulting services, newsletters and digital products.
- Monthly income: $1.36 billion USD
- Daily active users: 134.5 million
- Owner name: Microsoft Corporation
A brief history
Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly and Jean-Luc Vaillant founded LinkedIn in December 2002. In 2003, it was officially announced as a professional networking website. The platform gained popularity among professionals, belonging to all different industries. In 2011, LinkedIn got listed on the stock market through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) that boosted its reputation in the international market. Later in 2016, Microsoft, one of the most influential technology companies, acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion.
Snapchat
Snapchat offers some new features like content publishing for a short duration. It also contains messaging features, and the story-sharing app allows users to make their photos and videos more interactive using Augmented Reality (AR). The AR filter offers endless ways to add fun and transform their pictures into visually compelling content.
- Monthly Users: 850 million users
- Net Value: $16.51 billion USD
- Monetization plans: Advertising in stories, gifts, spotlights
- Monthly income: $450 million
- Daily active users: 453 million
- Owner name: Snap Inc.
A brief history
Three University Students of Stanford University, Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown founded Snapchat in 2011. In the early days, it was launched with the name, “Picaboo”. Later, it was renamed Snapchat. In 2013, the Snap communication app launched a 24-hour story feature. It became so popular and inspired many other social media giants like Facebook and Instagram. They also adopted the feature; it reflects the major Snapchat success. The IPO of Snap Inc went public in 2017 and Evan Spiegel was CEO. Since then, the company has continued to evolve.
Telegram
Telegram is a cloud-based messaging app, especially famous for its fast performance and privacy features. The encrypted chat platform uses many data centers across the globe and a special protocol called MTProto. Using this messaging app users can even share files up to 2 GB. It also allows users to create groups and add up to 200,000 people. Telegram also supports bots, mini apps that allow users to automate tasks, or add useful tools.
- Monthly Users: 1 billion
- Net Value: $40 billion USD
- Monetization plans: Ads in public channels, Telegram Stars and Mini app & Bots.
- Monthly income: $13.6 million USD
- Daily active users: 500 million
- Owner name: Pavel Durov and Nikolai Durov
A brief history
Two brothers, Pavel and Nikolai Durov, founded the privacy focused Telegram in 2013. With time, the messaging app launched some powerful features like secret chats with end-to-end encryption, Supergroups. Later it launched other features like Telegram Premium, Sponsored Messages, and Mini Apps to support monetization. The messaging app gained huge popularity and continued to grow.
Social Media Experts Opinion
The competition among the popular social media platforms is getting tougher. Each platform is trying to offer new and unique features to attract and engage users. However, the user behavior towards content consumption is changing, so almost all platforms fulfill their requirements while maintaining their platform’s standards. At the same time, users expect to earn from social media platforms, therefore the platforms offer different ways for their users to develop their income streams or find a job. Social media platforms play a significant role in keeping people connected and staying informed.
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