• Facebook leads in South Africa with 54% highly active users
  • TikTok is popular among younger users, with 25.1% usage surpassing Instagram’s 19.7%
  • WhatsApp dominates instant messaging with 68% usage

Facebook remains the most widely used social media platform in South Africa with 54% highly active users, people who say they have accessed the platform in the past 7 days.

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just old people on Facebook. It is used by both young and old across the income spectrum, according to the Social Media Landscape Report 2024. Also, more businesses (78%) are active on Facebook than any of the other social platforms.

TikTok, unsurprisingly, has more younger users than Facebook. About one-third of the 15- to 24-year-old users are highly active. Overall, 25% of TikTok users are highly active, up from 21% in 2022. There’s also been a significant increase in business users, with one-third of South Africa’s big brands now on TikTok, up from 1% in 2020.

Like TikTok, Instagram has higher usage among younger people and has 19.7% highly active users overall.

LinkedIn’s highly active users have remained steady at 6.6%.

Active users on X have decreased to 11% from 12.9%. The drop in use by businesses has been steep, from 90% in 2018 to 51% in 2024.

WhatsApp is the biggest instant messaging platform with 68% usage.