It accounts for 20% of Internet time. Social networking sites now reach 82% of the world's online population (Comscore)
In fact, there are now more Facebook users worldwide than Buddhists (Rune Leth Andersen)
Social networking has become the worlds most popular online activity
"Social is running out of hours. Social is also running out of people" George Colony, Forrester Forrester says social media only slightly less popular than shopping and childcare
At the same time, social media may be reaching saturation point in many markets
Indonesia - 86%
Russia - 84%
Egypt - 82%
Twitter was the most cited social network in the media in 2011, beating Facebook in 10/12 months including Sept when Facebook's new features were launched (Highbeam Research)
In the UK, 18% read a printed national newspaper less due to social media use. In Australia the figure is 21% and in the US it is 15% (Ofcom)
51% of 18-24 year olds in the UK, 53% in the US, 61% in France and 61% in Italy use social channels for breaking news (Ofcom)
Younger and female users of social media use it as a prime news source
29% often discuss what they are watching on TV in realtime online (Motorola)
Never mind how many Android vs iPhone handsets are sold: 61% of European non PC Internet traffic comes from Apple 'iDevices', while in the US 92% of mobile purchases were made via iPhones and iPads in Dec (Comscore / RichRelevance)
Instagram on track to becoming the world's biggest mobile social network, overtaking Foursquare (SocialFresh)
Credits
Images rich_w http://www.flickr.com/photos/rich_w/60183650/ alancleaver_2000 http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/2661425133/sizes/z/in/photostream/ fidzonflickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/fat_mufid/5416688197/ Jeroen Moes - http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeroenmoes/4835592796/ Ed Yourdon - http://www.flickr.com/photos/yourdon/3118063433/ Laughing Squid - http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/986542579/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughingsquid/4187459827/ balleyne - http://www.flickr.com/photos/balleyne/2668834386/sizes/z/in/photostream/ Gary Thomson - http://www.flickr.com/photos/garyth123/475458112/ trekkyyandy - http://www.flickr.com/photos/trekkyandy/2167734846/ steveleenow - http://www.flickr.com/photos/steveleenow/4629518557/sizes/z/in/photostream/ ajstarks - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ajstarks/3833576093/sizes/z/in/photostream/ elaws - http://www.flickr.com/photos/elaws/4491818299/sizes/z/in/photostream/
A post with links is up at http://liesdamnedliesstatistics.com Last months stats presentation can be found at http://liesdamnedliesstatistics.com/2011/12/stats-of-the-month-december.html