Social media apps have become integral to our daily lives. Nevertheless, in 2023, these apps faced ongoing challenges in their quest to maintain relevance.
As the number of social media users worldwide continues to rise, last reported at around 4.8 billion, some popular platforms are losing favour. Reports indicate that, on average, users engage with six to seven different platforms each month and spend approximately two hours and 24 minutes per day on them.
Though social media apps are integral to the daily lives of millions, their popularity can diminish rapidly. According to a report by TRG Datacentres, a US-based tech firm, Meta’s Threads app which gained 100 million users in five days saw an 80 per cent drop in daily active users since its launch in July 2023. According to the report, many social media apps struggled to stay relevant throughout the year prompting the organisation to carry out a survey on popular apps that fell out of favour this year.
The research revealed a global preference for deleting Instagram over other social media apps this year. According to the report, Instagram was the platform that users were most eager to delete. Over 1 million people worldwide searched ‘how to delete (my) Instagram account’ each month in 2023. This amounts to over 12,500 searches per 1,00,000 people globally.
“Instagram’s distinction as the most deleted app in 2023 echoes a shifting landscape in social media preferences,” said Chris Hinkle, Chief Technical Officer at TRG Datacenters. “It shows a dynamic shift in user priorities, signaling a demand for platforms that resonate more authentically and cater to evolving needs.”
How did they do the research?
The researchers used the nine most popular social networks worldwide as reported by Statista.com. These were the applications that were accessible in multiple countries. Later, they analysed over 12 months to see how many times ‘how to delete (my) account’ was searched per month on average. This was done alongside the number of people using each app. The researchers later used the global population to equate the number of people searching the specific terms each month per 1,00,000.
According to the research, 10,20,000 people looked to delete Instagram in 2023; 1,28,500 for Snapchat, 12,300 for Twitter, 71,700 for Telegram, 49,000 for Facebook, 24,900 for Tiktok, YouTube for 12,500; 4,950 for WhatsApp, and 2,090 for WeChat.
The photo-sharing application from Meta, Instagram was at the top of its game for years. However, the researchers feel that developments over the years, influx of ads, and influencers using it as a space to plug brands may have discouraged users from using the app. It is to be noted that the platform continues to have over 2 billion users worldwide. The researchers feel that if a million people continue to look forward to deleting the app each month, then it may spell doom for the popular app in the future.