Projections carried out by StockApps, a financial educational firm based in the United Kingdom, show that social media platforms Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, would grow up to 6.5 billion users by 2023. 

The report said that “the combined number of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram users, as the three most popular social media platforms globally, is expected to hit 5.7 billion this year. The increasing trend is set to continue in the following years, with the number of users growing by another 800 million to 6.5 billion in 2023.”

The report projects a 800 million growth for the platforms pegged at 6.5 billion users by 2023.

Facebook recorded the most growth, recording 2.1 billion active users in 2019 to 2.3 billion active accounts so far.  StockApps projects the numbers to hit 2.4 billion this year.  By 2023, the data firm projects that the Facebook will hit 2.63 billion users, a 340 million increase within a three-years period. 

In 2020, YouTube had recorded around 2.1 billion active users globally. The number of people using YouTube is expected to climb to 2.24 billion in 2021 and continue growing to 2.56 billion in 2023. 

While Instagram hit 926 million users in 2020, StockApp predicts that the app may hit over one billion users in 2021 and by 2023,1.3 billion active users worldwide.

The report attributes the growth of these social media platforms to the COVID-19 pandemic, where more people are spending time consuming content and interacting with others on social media as a result of state imposed lockdown.