(AFP Photo)
There are approximately 2.5 billion social media users worldwide, with Facebook the most famous and most popular.
Facebook is currently the number one network worldwide in terms of fame and popularity, as its number of users approach 1.4 million globally, a figure that grew by 14% compared to last year.
Twitter is another social media network that has spread in popularity in recent years, and played an important role in the political events of many countries, especially the Middle East. Twitter allows its users to send short messages of no more than 140 characters per message; one may also call it an intensively summarised text of many details. The number of Twitter users accounts for about 700 million globally, with the rate of 200,000 new users every day.
Instagram is the most famous of photography social media platforms, as it is an application specialising in sharing photos and videos. Established in 2010, and developed through Facebook, the application gained fame amongst internet users, as every second over 58 new pictures are added. It now has a stock of more than 1bn photos since its establishment, and is available in more than 25 languages.
The number of Instragram users accounts for almost 320m users, with a semi- annual growth rate of 25%.
LinkedIn, an online network for professionals, allows you to display your CV professionally, and update it as you like. Users can also join groups of certain classifications and categories. The number of LinkedIn users has now reached approximately 340m users, at a rate of 17,000 new subscribers daily.
The emergence of social networks in our lives has created a new market for buying and selling, creating a shift away from traditional marketing methods for a product, service, or institution. Buying and selling has now shifted to electronic marketing through the internet for a service, product, or a certain company and reached internet clients. Although electronic marketing is derived from traditional forms, the advantages of e-marketing have exceeded traditional marketing in more than one aspect.
The volume of spending on digital advertising in Egypt amounts to EGP 500m according to a recent report by the Digital Marketing Arts Academy. As much as EGP 400m is spent on internet advertising. The various channels of digital advertisement represent 7% of the total expenditure on advertising in Egypt, while projections indicate an increase in the percentage of this share to 10% by the end of this year 2015. These projections come in compatibility with annual growth rates, which is due to reach 50%.
