YouTube and KakaoTalk Solidify SNS Dominance This Year... Instagram and TikTok Also Surge

KakaoStory, Facebook, and Band on the Decline

This year, the most widely used social networking service (SNS) platforms among Koreans were YouTube and KakaoTalk. While Instagram, TikTok, and Meta's Threads made significant gains, KakaoStory, Facebook, and Band experienced declines.

According to statistics from IGAWorks Mobile Index released on December 28, YouTube and KakaoTalk maintained their strong dominance in monthly active users (MAU) among major SNS platforms from January to November this year.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

YouTube started the year with 47.03 million MAU in January and steadily increased to 48.48 million in November, marking a 3.1% growth rate. During the same period, KakaoTalk also grew by 1.7%, from 45.69 million to 46.46 million users. Instagram saw a 7.4% increase, from 22.98 million in January to 24.68 million in November.

Among the major platforms, short-form-based platforms showed particularly strong growth. TikTok's "TikTok Lite" saw its user base jump by 28.7%, from 4.79 million in January to 6.17 million in November. The main service, TikTok, maintained a similar user level and increased by 21.7% during the same period.

Meta's Threads, an SNS focused on photos and short texts, also recorded a 22.3% growth rate, rising from 4.8 million to 5.87 million users in the same period. X (formerly Twitter) grew by 7.8%, from 6.67 million to 7.19 million users.

In contrast, traditional SNS platforms showed a downward trend. KakaoStory users plummeted by 19.8%, from 3.55 million to 2.85 million during this period. Facebook and Band also declined by 6.0% (from 8.61 million to 8.09 million) and 5.1% (from 17 million to 16.12 million), respectively.

Industry experts believe that platforms based on short-form content and user interests have continued to grow this year by expanding their user base within a short period of time. In contrast, platforms centered around text-based content appear to have experienced a decline in users.