Social Networking Companies and What They Own
While you log in to your favourite social media app, you might not understand a number of the methods it’s linked to different common social media platforms. Globally, lots of the high social networking companies personal (or are owned by) the identical firms.
Buyers seeking to capitalize on the recognition of the most recent social media developments could want to hold this in thoughts. Take a more in-depth have a look at a number of the firms that personal main social media platforms and companies world wide.
Contents
Key Takeaways
- A number of the largest social media platforms on this planet are literally subsidiaries of different firms.
- Meta Platforms, which owns Fb, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp, has the most important focus of high social media platforms by energetic customers.
- Established tech giants comparable to Microsoft and Alphabet personal distinguished social media networks along with offering a spread of different choices.
Meta Platforms
Meta Platforms Inc. (META), previously Fb, owns and operates three of the highest 4 social networking platforms by month-to-month energetic customers (MAU) as of October 2022. It’s possible finest identified for Fb, which had 2.91 billion MAU as of Dec. 31, 2021, making it the most important social media platform globally by this measurement.
Meta additionally owns Instagram, the favored photograph, video, and personal messaging platform, in addition to messaging apps Messenger and WhatsApp.
Whereas Meta doesn’t present detailed details about MAU for these platforms, they’re believed to be among the many most-trafficked apps globally. CNBC reported in December 2021 that Instagram had surpassed 2 billion month-to-month customers, whereas WhatsApp reached a reported 2 billion customers in early 2020.
Tencent
Tencent Holdings Ltd. is a Chinese language expertise and leisure holding firm that owns a portfolio of social networking platforms which might be common all through Asia. Of those, the most important by MAU is Weixin, additionally identified in English as WeChat, which had almost 1.3 billion MAU as of Sept. 30, 2022. WeChat is a messaging platform that additionally gives funds companies and a bunch of different instruments.
Tencent additionally owns QQ, an prompt messaging and internet portal service which reported greater than 574 million mobile-device MAU as of Sept. 30, 2022.
ByteDance
ByteDance is a Chinese language tech big best-known outdoors of Asia for the video-focused social media platform TikTok. TikTok, which has come underneath scrutiny by the U.S. authorities for its potential use in unauthorized surveillance operations, has greater than 1 billion customers go to the app every month.
ByteDance additionally owns and operates a lot of different social media platforms which might be out there in China, together with Douyin—an alternative choice to TikTok centered on the Chinese language market—and content material discovery and information aggregator Toutiao, amongst others.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is a software program, electronics, and {hardware} maker that’s maybe not finest generally known as a social networking firm, regardless of its prominence within the U.S. and overseas as one of many main workplace software program and tech corporations. Nonetheless, Microsoft owns a number of the hottest networking firms for each private and enterprise use. These embody LinkedIn, the skilled networking platform that has greater than 850 million customers. Microsoft additionally owns video and voice communications platform Skype.
Alphabet
One of many major choices of tech big Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) is YouTube. Whereas not a standard social media platform within the format as others talked about, YouTube is an area through which content material creators and audiences can come collectively to share leisure and data. As of October 2022, there have been an estimated 2.5 billion YouTube customers worldwide.
Sina
Chinese language expertise agency Sina Corp. supplies cell and numerous on-line companies. It additionally owns Weibo, a preferred microblogging platform with roughly 584 million month-to-month energetic customers as of September 2022.
Different Social Media Corporations
There are a selection of different social media firms that preserve vital consumer bases, both regionally or globally however both are personal firms or are publicly traded firms and not using a dad or mum or subsidiary social media platforms. These embody Chinese language video-sharing app Kuaishou, digital camera and social media platform Snap Inc. (SNAP), microblogging app Twitter, prompt messaging service Telegram, content material aggregator and dialogue platform Reddit, together with many others.
Who Owns Most Social Media Platforms?
A number of the hottest social media platforms worldwide, together with Fb, Instagram, and TikTok, are subsidiaries owned by different firms. In these circumstances, Meta Platforms owns Fb and Instagram, whereas ByteDance owns TikTok.
Which Social Media Corporations Are Owned by Google?
Alphabet, the dad or mum firm of Google, owns YouTube, the video-sharing web site.
Which Social Media Platform Has the Largest Consumer Base?
When it comes to variety of month-to-month energetic customers, Fb is the most important social media platform globally. It had greater than 2.9 billion customers as of the tip of 2021. Nonetheless, some social media firms don’t present consumer information publicly, and others measure consumer exercise in numerous methods (comparable to by each day energetic customers), making direct comparisons troublesome.
The Backside Line
The ever-growing community of social media firms has shifted considerably because the business first developed. A number of the main gamers within the house have been acquired by different firms, as when Meta Platforms (then Fb) acquired Instagram in 2012. Different social media platforms are subsidiaries of various firms—take into account the instance of TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance. And nonetheless different social media platforms are personal or have been taken personal, comparable to when beforehand publicly traded Twitter was bought and brought personal by billionaire Elon Musk in late October 2022.
