Nearly five billion people, or slightly more than 60 percent of the world’s population, are active on social media, according to a recent study.

That represents an increase of 3.7 percent over the past year, according to calculations by digital advisory firm Kepios in its latest quarterly report.

The number of social network users is approaching the number that use the 5.19 billion which use the internet, or 64.5 percent of the world population.

There are major differences between regions. Only one person out of 11 in east and central Africa use social media. In India, now the world’s most populous nation, the figure is one out of three.

The amount of time spent on social media has also increased, by two minutes to 2 hours and 26 minutes per day. Here again there are large disparities, with Brazilians spending an average of 3 hours and 49 minutes per day on social media while the Japanese less than an hour.

The average social media user is on seven platforms.

Meta has three of the favourite apps with WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.

China has three apps, WeChat, TikTok and its local version Douyin.

Twitter, Messenger and Telegram round out the top social media platforms.

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© Agence France-Presse