Facebook Daily Active Users (DAU) Vs Twitter, Snap And Weibo

Social media companies. Flickr Image.

The daily active users or DAUs are one of the most used and important metrics for social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snap, and Weibo.

The purpose of the DAU metric is to measure users’ engagement and activities on social media platforms.

As most social media companies depend on advertising revenue, the higher the DAU figure, the more revenue they will make.

For this reason, most investors will follow closely the DAU figures of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snap, and Weibo.

A decline in the DAU figure on a consistent basis will almost always spell disaster for these companies and hence, the stock prices.

Therefore, in this article, we are going to examine and compare the DAU metrics of Facebook, Snap, Twitter and Weibo.

For your information, Pinterest does not specifically publish a DAU figure.

Instead, Pinterest publishes the MAU or monthly active user metric which is shown in this article: Pinterest’s MAU comparison with that of Facebook and Weibo.

That said, only Facebook, Twitter, Snap, and Weibo publish DAU figures during their earnings calls.

So, let’s start with the topics below.

Wordwide Or Global DAU

Worldwide or global DAU

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The worldwide or global DAU includes users from all geographical locations.

A first look at the chart above, it is very clear that Facebook is the king of social media platforms given the massive DAU figures.

Compared to Snapchat, Twitter, and Weibo, Facebook’s global DAU is way ahead of the pack.

As of 2023 Q2, Facebook garnered nearly 2.1 billion daily active users on its platforms on a global basis, a year-over-year increase of 5%.

While Facebook has long existed before other platforms came into the scene, its worldwide DAU is still on the rise.

Facebook’s DAU figure is at the extreme of the statistics given that nearly one-third of the world’s total population hops on its platform on a daily basis.

In contrast, other social media platforms seem to have lagged far behind Facebook in terms of daily active users (DAU).

For example, Snapchat, a social media platform with the second highest DAU number after Facebook, had only about 400 million daily active users as of Q2 2023, or about one-fifth of Facebook’s number.

The DAU figures were even smaller for Twitter and Weibo.

Snap, Twitter And Weibo’s Worldwide Or Global DAU

Twitter, Snap And Weibo’s DAU

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The previous chart may not clearly capture the global or worldwide DAU figures for Snap, Twitter, and Weibo as they are too small to be shown clearly.

Therefore, I have created another chart that explicitly shows Snapchat, Twitter, and Weibo’s global or worldwide DAU.

As shown in the chart above, Snapchat’s DAU leads both Twitter and Weibo’s DAU all these years.

As of fiscal 2023 Q2, Snapchat’s global DAU topped 397 million users while Weibo’s worldwide DAU came in at only 255 million.

Twitter’s DAU was last known in 2Q 2022 at 238 million before it was taken private.

Snapchat’s DAU grew 14% in fiscal Q2 2023 on a year-over-year basis.

North America DAU

North America DAU

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Again, with nearly 200 million daily active users, Facebook is the largest social media platform by active users in North America.

Snapchat came in 2nd at about 100 million active users in the North American region.

Snap Inc.’s 100 million active users are only half of Facebook’s figure for this region.

Twitter’s North America DAU was last known in fiscal Q2 2022 at 42 million users before it was taken private.

Facebook’s North America DAU grew only 2.5% in 2Q 2023 from a year ago.

Snapchat’s North America DAU also remained flat in the last several years.

Facebook has gained a large user base in the North American region.

For perspective, Facebook’s daily active users in the North American region made up nearly one-third of the region’s total population.

Europe DAU

Europe DAU

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In terms of daily active users in Europe, Facebook’s figure was more than 300 million and was much higher than Snapchat’s.

Snap had 92 million daily active users in Europe as of fiscal 2Q 2023.

Twitter and Weibo do not break down their Europe DAU figures.

Instead, Twitter lumps the data together with users categorized under the international region.

Facebook’s Europe DAU has remained flat in the last several years while Snap’s figures have slightly increased.

Therefore, Facebook was much more popular in Europe than Snap as more than 300 million active users logged on to its platforms on a daily basis.

Asia Pacific DAU

Asia Pacific DAU

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Snap, Twitter, and Weibo do not break down their DAUs figures for the Asia Pacific region.

Instead, Snap and Twitter lumped the data under the International region.

Therefore, I am assuming that the Asia Pacific DAUs for Twitter, Weibo, and Snap may not be substantially material.

That said, Facebook’s DAUs in the Asia Pacific are more impressive than the numbers recorded for North America and Europe.

In Q2 2023, Facebook’s Asia Pacific DAU clocked nearly 900 million, up 7% from a year ago.

While Facebook’s DAU growth in other regions may have slowed down, it’s not the case in the Asia Pacific.

As seen, Facebook’s DAUs growth rates in the Asia Pacific have continued to rise, albeit at slower rates in recent years.

Facebook may have more rooms to grow in the Asia Pacific region.

For perspective, Facebook’s 900 million daily active users in the Asia Pacific represent less than 20% of the total population in this area.

This ratio is much smaller than that of North America and Europe.

International DAU

International DAU

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Internationally, Facebook’s daily active users topped nearly 1.9 billion as of fiscal 2Q 2023, a record high since 2016.

On the other hand, Snap’s international DAUs came to about 296 million in the same quarter, a much smaller figure compared to Facebook’s.

Twitter’s international DAU was last reported to be about 196 million when the company was still publicly traded.

Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter have the best DAU growth outside of North America.

Facebook DAU Growth Rates

Facebook DAU Growth Rates By Region

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Facebook’s DAU growth rates in all regions have been on the decline.

For example, Facebook used to have up to 31% of DAU growth rates in the Asia Pacific region.

But this figure was down to only 6.6% as of Q2 2023.

Similarly, Facebook’s DAU growth rates in Europe used to be in the ballpark of 7.5%.

This figure tumbled to only 1.3% as of 2Q 2023, and similar growth rates were recorded in the last several quarters for the European region.

Facebook’s DAU growth in North America also has significantly declined and has been one of the lowest among all regions.

As of Q2 2023, this figure was reported to be only 2.5% compared to 1.0% reported a year ago.

Snap DAU Growth Rates

Snap Inc DAU Growth Rates By Region

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Snapchat’s DAU growth rates in all regions performed much better than that of Facebook.

As shown in the chart above, Snap’s DAU growth on a global basis topped more than 10% in most quarters and the number came in at 14.4% as of 2Q 2023.

Snap also recorded high single-digit DAU growth rates for the European region.

For example, Snap’s DAU growth rates for the European region came in at 9.3%, 12.2%, and 10.3%, respectively, for the last 3 quarters between 2022 and 2023.

Snap recorded DAU growth of only 2% for the North American region, the lowest among all regions and this figure has been on the decline.

Twitter DAU Growth Rates

Twitter DAU Growth Rates By Region

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Similarly, Twitter’s DAU growth rates in all regions also performed much better than that of Facebook.

For instance, Twitter’s International DAU recorded growth rates of 16%, 15.5%, and 12.7%, respectively, in the last 3 quarters of 2022, the best among all regions.

Twitter’s North America DAU growth rates were among the lowest but the number clocked 13.5% in 2Q 2022, which was much higher than prior rates.

Weibo DAU Growth Rates

Weibo DAU Growth Rates By Region

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As mentioned, Weibo does not break down its DAU figures by region.

Therefore, there is only one region to show which is on a global basis.

As seen in the chart, Weibo’s DAU growth rates also had been on the decline, logging in at 1.2% as of Q2 2023 and similar growth rates were recorded in the past several quarters, illustrating the significant decline of user growth.

Summary

Facebook leads the pack in terms of daily active users.

Facebook recorded much higher DAU numbers in all regions compared to Snap, Twitter, and Weibo.

In terms of DAU growth rates, Facebook recorded lower results compared to Snap and Twitter in all regions.

References and Credits

1. DAU figures for all companies discussed in this article were obtained and referenced from the respective financial statements which can be obtained in the following links:

a) Facebook Investor Relations
b) Snap Investor Relations
c) Twitter Investor Relations
d) Weibo Investor Relations

2. Featured images in this article are used under Creative Common Licenses and obtained from jclark and Jason Howie.

Disclosure

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