Facebook users more active than those of Twitter, Google+

At the end of 2014, seven out of 10 internet users described themselves as social network users, according to a report published by GlobalWebIndex. Facebook emerged as the site these users visit most frequently during a given day, returning again and again to read and like their friends’ latest posts. While 73% of those surveyed said they visited Facebook at least once a month, only 42% of them said they were truly active users. 36% of respondents said they had logged into Twitter, 29% to Google+ and 25% to LinkedIn over the past 30 days. In terms of contributions, only 22% of respondents had posted to Twitter, 21% to Google+ and 13% to LinkedIn. While social network users often spend two hours per day on the sites, certain services appear to be more addictive than others. For example, nearly 75% of active Facebook users said they log into the site at least once daily. The majority of active users of YouTube, Google+, Twitter and Instagram also visit the platforms at least once per day, while most active Tumblr, LinkedIn and Pinterest users log in just once a week at the most. Users love to like on Facebook Facebook is the social network where users are most likely to have read an article posted to their newsfeed: 53% said they had read at least one in the past 30 days, compared to 45% of Google+ users and 42% of Twitter users. Facebook is also the platform where internet users are most likely to express their approval of content. 70% of those surveyed reported using the Like button on Facebook at least once a month, compared to just 33% who used the +1 feature on Google+ or retweeted a message on Twitter. Finally, despite the growing popularity of mobile apps for social networking, PCs are still the primary device used to access the sites. 60% of respondents said they still log in at least once a month from a PC, compared to 40% from a smartphone and 20% from a tablet. The study was carried out by GlobalWebIndex, which conducts quarterly surveys of over 40,000 internet users aged 16 to 64 from 32 countries around the world. AFP