Digital advertising will continue to move in 2023. STROOM's digital team will take you through the most important developments in digital media. This month, digital consultants Priscilla and Patricia discuss developments around digital platforms.

We are already seeing some remarkable developments in the use of digital media, according to the Newcom National Social Media Survey 2023. (Dutch research).

The biggest growth in daily use is seen on Instagram (+18% to 4.7 million daily users), Snapchat (+30% to 2.5 million daily users) and TikTok (+54% to 2.5 million daily users). Newcomer BeReal is now used by 800,000 people daily.

Decline is seen mainly in the 'older' platforms Twitter (-26% to 1.1 million daily users) and Facebook (-4% to 6.6 million daily users). YouTube's growth over the past 10 years has also stalled (-1% to 3.5 million daily users).

Total social media use is higher than ever with 114 minutes per day. Young people aged 15 to 19 take first place with 161 minutes of usage per day. Within this group, we also see the most striking trends in the type of platforms they use.

Young people are switching from established platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for more "fun" platforms.
With Facebook, the loss is mainly among users aged 15 to 19 who no longer use the platform because they like other platforms better or because their friends are on other platforms.

We have seen teenagers abandoning Facebook for several years now. This year's figures show that, for the first time, teenagers can also be found less on Instagram and YouTube. These used to be the channels to reach younger audiences. Both are now surpassed by Snapchat. TikTok is also used more frequently than YouTube on a daily basis and is now almost as big as Instagram. The third platform that has momentum among young people is BeReal. This platform is now used daily by just over 20% of teenagers. This isthe same for 20-year-olds.

Among 20-year-olds, it is remarkable that daily use of TikTok is approaching the level of Instagram and now exceeds daily use of Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube.

YouTube innovates: how successful will YouTube Shorts be?

YouTube is starting to lose some ground in initially important audiences and they are responding to this with new features. Where previously Facebook in particular successfully copied many features from other apps (Snapchat & TikTok), YouTube is now trying the same with Shorts, which looks suspiciously similar to TikTok. We found out what the opportunities are for brands.

The shorter, the better! Short videos that are quick and easy to record are unmissable within social media. Snackable content, you might call it. Besides the popular TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube decided to join this trend with YouTube Shorts, which launched back in 2020. Shorts are videos of up to 60 seconds that can be viewed on the channels and the Shorts feed. That the new feature is now incredibly popular can be seen from the published figures. On average, Shorts are viewed around 4 billion times a day worldwide by more than 1.5 billion active logged-in users. In this, Shorts is currently seen as TikTok's biggest competitor. No official research figures have yet been published on the number of global TikTok users in 2023, but it is estimated that this number is also at around 1.5 billion with around 167 million videos being watched per minute on TikTok. This makes it one of the most active channels. Currently, demand exceeds supply, opening up many opportunities for creators, brands and media companies.

Now that the reach is up to par, YouTube is rolling out Shorts advertising by region. The ads are instantly swipeable video ads that are displayed between clips in the Shorts feed. The testing phase started in April 2022 and so far YouTube has received positive feedback from advertisers and achieved good results. The addition of Shorts within YouTube, offers advertisers new opportunities to be visible within a large platform and among a large audience. Shorts are expected to become even more prominent and findable on both mobile and desktop. This is likely to further increase the reach for advertisers. Especially for awareness campaigns, this is a great addition to the media mix.

Platforms reach unique target groups
As consumer behaviour changes, social media platforms are changing and innovating. In doing so, we see a trend from sharing moments (Facebook and Twitter) to sharing beautiful images (Instagram) to user-generated content and entertainment (YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, BeReal). Unfortunately, we don't have a crystal ball, but it is still interesting to see how the world around social media continues to innovate and adapt. Anno 2023, a difference between the platforms and on which social media channels you can best reach a particular target group is becoming increasingly clear.

The shorter, the better! Short videos that are quick and easy to record are unmissable within social media. Snackable content, you might call it. Besides the popular TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube decided to join this trend with YouTube Shorts, which launched back in 2020. Shorts are videos of up to 60 seconds that can be viewed on the channels and the Shorts feed. That the new feature is now incredibly popular can be seen from the published figures. On average, Shorts are viewed around 4 billion times a day worldwide by more than 1.5 billion active logged-in users. In this, Shorts is currently seen as TikTok's biggest competitor. No official research figures have yet been published on the number of global TikTok users in 2023, but it is estimated that this number is also at around 1.5 billion with around 167 million videos being watched per minute on TikTok. This makes it one of the most active channels. Currently, demand exceeds supply, opening up many opportunities for creators, brands and media companies.

By Priscilla Teunissen, Digital Communications Consultant and Patricia van Zon Sr. Digital Communications Consultant at STROOM