{"id":85900,"date":"2023-07-14T05:16:46","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T05:16:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/?p=85900"},"modified":"2025-11-17T17:42:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T17:42:00","slug":"facebook-stays-a-crowd-favourite-while-tiktok-overtakes-instagram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/2023\/07\/14\/facebook-stays-a-crowd-favourite-while-tiktok-overtakes-instagram\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook stays a crowd favourite, while TikTok overtakes Instagram"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Facebook (56.7%) is still the most popular social media platform among South Africans, TikTok (30.6%) has recently overtaken Instagram<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Companies still opt to spend most of their social media budgets on &#8216;old school&#8217; apps like Facebook and LinkedIn<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>New app Threads gained 100-million users in five days, but two popular SA influencers say they won\u2019t use it for work content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The internet forms an integral part of most people\u2019s lives, from work to play. It\u2019s almost unimaginable that close to 17-million South Africans do not have access to the one thing that consumes so much of the rest of the population\u2019s time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the more than 72% of South Africans who do use the internet, 25.8-million people are active on social media. For most of them, Facebook is by far the most popular social network. It is particularly popular among the 15-to-34 age group and for businesses too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most companies (84%) were active on Facebook in the first half of 2023, according to the South African Social Media Landscape Report of 2023. The second-most popular choice of companies is LinkedIn (76%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most companies also choose to spend the majority of their advertising money on those two platforms. Almost half of the companies surveyed spend ad money on Facebook, followed by a quarter on LinkedIn. Both apps were founded about 20 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Newish kid on the block TikTok has experienced impressive growth among South African users and has replaced Instagram in the second position, it does not see the same amount of ad spend from business. According to the survey, only 1% of companies pushed paid ads on the short-video platform, which launched in South Africa in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/07\/Frame-2-1-800x800.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-85902\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Facebook is likely to see \u2018tremendous erosion\u2019 of its 15-to-24 user base in the next five years as the knock-on effect of the younger group\u2019s attitude comes into play, says Arthur Goldstuck, CEO of World Wide Worx, which produced the report with brand consultancy Ornico. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">TikTok<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Facebook isn\u2019t the only social media app that could see a decline in users because of TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The video-sharing app has inched ahead of Instagram as the second-most used form of social media in the country in 2023. More than 30% of South Africans used TikTok last year versus 28% of users on Instagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/07\/Group-24-800x800.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-85906\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>South African <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@wian?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wian van den Berg<\/a> (28) is just one of many young people in the country who have used the app to their advantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He posted his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@wian\/video\/6600261617743564037?is_from_webapp=1&amp;sender_device=pc&amp;web_id=6986995420493972994\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">first video<\/a> in September 2018 and has gained 16.8-million followers since then, making him one of the most followed South Africans on the app. What\u2019s his niche? He teaches viewers how to pull off magic tricks. Take a look at one of his most popular videos with 68.3-million views where he tricks onlookers into thinking he\u2019s sitting on an invisible chair:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-tiktok wp-block-embed-tiktok\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@wian\/video\/6995574880037113089\" data-video-id=\"6995574880037113089\" data-embed-from=\"oembed\" style=\"max-width:605px; min-width:325px;\"> <section> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"@wian\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@wian?refer=embed\">@wian<\/a> <p>Invisible chair illusion \ud83e\udd2f <a title=\"magic\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/magic?refer=embed\">#magic<\/a> <a title=\"foryou\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/foryou?refer=embed\">#foryou<\/a> <a title=\"magictrick\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/magictrick?refer=embed\">#magictrick<\/a><\/p> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"\u266c Beggin' - M\u00e5neskin\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/Beggin'-5000000001320781379?refer=embed\">\u266c Beggin&#8217; &#8211; M\u00e5neskin<\/a> <\/section> <\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>South African TikTokker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@chanegrobler?_t=8dvOn783Fzx&amp;_r=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chan\u00e9 Grobler<\/a> has 2.4-million followers on the app. She creates content about her daily life, as well as dance and lip-syncing videos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The 22-year-old has gained more than 98-million likes on the app since 2018, but she says TikTok doesn\u2019t pay South African users for views. However, there are other ways to coin it using the video platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018Users can make money through live-streaming where their followers can gift them gift points which they can then withdraw through a PayPal account,\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Threads<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The most recent newcomer in the social media space is Threads, created by Facebook parent company Meta. The text-based conversation app is similar to Twitter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Threads launched on 6 July 2023 and gained <a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/t\/CuhOXGmr74R\/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">100-million followers<\/a> in just five days. For comparison, this is how long it took other social media giants and ChatGPT to reach the same following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/editor.mediahack.co.za\/theoutlier\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/07\/SocialBoom-1-800x800.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-85913\" width=\"500\" height=\"500\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Threads is clearly popular, but how will South African influencers choose to use it? Grobler says it will be her work-free zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018I don\u2019t think that I\u2019d use it to spread my other content, I\u2019d like to keep Threads for fun and games that has nothing to do with work.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@bryankazaka?_t=8dxOGWl42g2&amp;_r=1\">Bryan Kazaka<\/a> (21), who has 8.7-million followers on TikTok, shares a similar sentiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2018I am excited to see how it plays out. Personally I do not see it as an opportunity to post new content but to closer engage with your fans.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Notebook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/website.ornico.co.za\/2023\/06\/29\/the-sa-social-media-landscape-report-2023\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">South African Social Media Landscape Report 2023<\/a> [pdf] is produced by brand consultancy Ornico and market research house World Wide Worx<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>DataReportal covers digital trends and behaviours in South Africa. Here&#8217;s its <a href=\"https:\/\/datareportal.com\/reports\/digital-2023-south-africa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2023 round-up<\/a> <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The figures quoted for TikTok followers were correct at the time of publishing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s social media scene: Facebook dominates, TikTok thrives and Threads takes on Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,446,1387],"tags":[335,336,337,338,339,340,341,342,343,344,40,345,346,347,348,349,350,351,352],"newsletter-post":[],"site":[],"class_list":["post-85900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-news","category-the-outlier","tag-ad-spend","tag-app","tag-apple","tag-application","tag-business","tag-facebook","tag-instagram","tag-linkedin","tag-marketing","tag-social-media","tag-south-africa","tag-statistics","tag-subscribers","tag-survey","tag-threads","tag-tiktok","tag-twitter","tag-users","tag-whatsapp"],"acf":{"big_number":null,"big_number_caption":null,"big_number_link":null,"big_number_background":null,"big_number_text_colour":null,"big_number_icon":null,"big_number_wide":null,"featured_chart":null,"flourish_chart_id":null,"flourish_sub_title":null,"flourish_chart_width":null,"is_newsletter_post":null,"post_style":null,"show_on_front":null,"link_through":null,"chart_url":null,"background_colour":null,"text_colour":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85900"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86546,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85900\/revisions\/86546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85900"},{"taxonomy":"newsletter-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter-post?post=85900"},{"taxonomy":"site","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outliereditor.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/site?post=85900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}