Facebook is the largest social networking site in the world. It was founded in 2004 but opened to the public in 2006 where it has risen to become an unmatchable social networking tool. As of 2021, Facebook has over 2.7 billion active account users globally, which suggests why its monthly revenue continues to upsurge. It has continued to improve the features of the website by adding more and more user-friendly features that augur well with the needs of the users.
As of the end of 2020 financial year, Facebook had generated approximately $86 billion in revenues mostly from advertising sales and had a total of 58000 employees. As it continues to grow by incorporating various innovations to enhance its performance and usability, it is projected that its members will continue to grow and it will remain the social network platform to beat in the world. Here are however some of the top 13 Facebook competitors that can give it a run of its money in this industry;
Here are some Key facts about Facebook in 2021
- Daily User base – Facebook has a daily user base of 1.73 Billion
- Monthly user base – The monthly user base of Facebook is 2.60 Billion
- Fake users – 5% of users of Facebook are expected to be fake at any given point of time.
- Most Facebook users – India has the most Facebook users in 2021
- Revenue per user – Facebook is expected to have $3.5 as revenue earned per user
Table of Contents
How does Facebook Make money?
Facebook makes money through advertising. Facebook is a platform where users get together for engagement, discussions, community and many other things. Facebook serves ads to these users and earns money from the advertising brands and agencies.
Boosting posts and advertising your page is another way Facebook earns money. A simple example is Marketing91 Facebook page which has 32000 subscribers but when we share a post on our page, it reaches only 300-400 people. We have to boost the post to make it reach to more people.
Another method of making money is through the services it officers and the hardware focus the company is aiming for. Facebook has ventured into AR and VR and also offers E-commerce and shopping. Nonetheless, the revenue from other activities is far lower than the revenue from advertising.
1. Google
Google is a US-based global internet company that specializes in offering digital products and services including advertising, online search, software and cloud computing. It is arguably the leading multiplatform that receives the highest number of visitors. Given that it offers a variety of features, it makes it easy for the users to use it for different searching purposes.
It generates much of its revenue from advertising via Google sites and Google Network websites. As much as Facebook earns relatively more from advertising, Google remains the major competitor in advertising. It currently has more than 123,000 fulltime employees and 80000 contractors and commands a search share of 91.45% of traffic in the world as of 2021.
Facebook vs Google
Because of the war of advertisements and marketing spends, Google is one of the top Facebook competitors. Google’s adwords is one of the toughest adversaries Facebook faces. Facebook smartly started the Social media boost package for its pages which brings a lot of revenue to Facebook. Yet, Google being a search engine, major industrial and E-commerce spending happens on Google itself.
It has also diverted its services and products making it a possible for many users to find it an ideal platform for various internet services and digital products. It currently provides Android’s operating system, chrome browser, chromecast and Nexus among many others.
2. TikTok
TikTok is a competitor which came out of the blue and blew away the user base of both – Facebook and Instagram. TikTok was funny and it gave power in the hands of the users. People could make mini videos of themselves doing comic stuff or even interesting things. These were liked by their viewers a lot. Because of the attention that the user base received, a lot of TikTok videos began being made on a daily basis.
TikTok especially exploded in countries with larger populations where lakhs of TikTok videos were being made every day. However, TikTok’s growth was limited due to a lack of trust in the Chinese government which caused many governments to ban TikTok in their countries. Nonetheless, TikTok was definitely one social media platform that gave it tough to facebook.
TikTok vs Facebook
In a way, TikTok was good for Facebook too. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg has been clear in his business philosophy. You cannot afford Ego in 2021. As a business FB always tries to innovate new products. But when it can’t then it simply copies its competitor’s products and destroys them. This is what Facebook has done by launching Instagram Reels which is now competing with TikTok. TikTok definitely has the first-mover advantage but it has been banned in several countries. This is why, in the long run, it will be Facebook that will win against TikTok.
3. Twitter
Twitter is an internet social networking platform that allows users to send relatively short messages commonly known as tweets. It is also regarded as one of the leading social media websites with an estimated 330 million active users as of the first quarter of 2017. As of November 2017, Katy Perry was the active celebrity with the highest number of followers at 107 million. When considering only social media, from day 1, Twitter is considered as one of the toughest Facebook competitors.
Twitter has a unique layout and uses retweets and trending news to attract social media users. Twitter generated global revenue of $2.53 billion and an annual advertising revenue worth $2.25 billion. Research shows that Twitter is increasingly becoming an ideal platform for transmitting messages in live events. However, it faces stiff competition from other emerging platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat which are also becoming popular among users, especially the millennials.
Facebook vs Twitter
Twitter and Facebook are different based on the tone of the users who are interacting on the platform. Twitter is known to be far more serious and media-oriented as compared to Facebook. Moreover, Twitter has a much better reach for its tweets as compared to Facebook, where the reach is slowly becoming limited especially for brands. Most of the user base of Twitter is busy discussing real-time events whereas Facebook is more busy discussing entertainment.
4. Snapchat
Snapchat is a mobile app that allows users to send, receive and share photos and multimedia content. It was launched in 2011 with an initial intention to share impermanent pictures through a private message known as snaps that could only be viewed for a limited duration before they become inaccessible.
It supports video viewing and sharing which is also estimated to be more than 10 billion videos viewed and shared on this platform on a daily basis. This places it as one of the fastest rising Facebook competitors amongst all. When regular user’s video engagement is considered, Snapchat might be the number 1 in Facebook competition. It is one of the fastest growing social platforms recording global revenue of $404.48 million in 2016. As of the third quarter of 2017, Snapchat had 178 million daily active users, which is projected to increase given that it is also becoming more popular.
5. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is also a social networking service majorly for professionals and businesses. It currently has over 470 million active users from all over the world making it one of the most popular sites in the world. It supports 24 different languages and available in more than 200 countries. Linkedin is very different from Facebook and while Facebook is more social, LinkedIn is more professional. Because it attracts most of the professional crowd, it is considered as one of the top Facebook Competitors.
LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft in December 2016 at figure estimated to be $26.2 billion. It generates a better percentage of its revenue from hiring solutions, then advertising followed by premium subscriptions. It is mostly used by persons between 25 to 34 years old who are positioning themselves in developing their careers and businesses. It was ranked in 2016 as the leading social network used by Top Fortune companies. If we consider all the players in Facebook Competition analysis, LinkedIn will be the most unfazed one because its value proposition is completely different.
6. Pinterest
Pinterest is a social networking platform that is arguably regarded as the fastest growing site in history to ever reach 10 million new visitors in a month and attain high user engagement metrics. This was such a big deal considering that it was an invitation-based platform during its initial launch and growth.
As of September 2017, Pinterest had more than 200 million active users out of which 44 million were from the US. It is also projected that the number of Pinterest users by 2020 will be approximately 66.6 million considering that its awareness reach as of February 2017 in the US was at 70%. Global marketers use Pinterest for different company marketing purposes making it a strong competitor of Facebook.
7. Quora
Quora is a US-based interactive website that offers a platform for question-answering mechanisms. The users ask questions, provide answers, edit and organize the information accordingly. It was established in 2009 but was launched to the public in 2010. Its headquarters is in California, but it is available in 5 languages, which include English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
It is growing strongly and is considered one of the toughest Facebook Competitors in the future especially in most of the countries that are developing and that have a young and vibrant crowd with a lot of questions which need answers. Quora’s membership is free, and you can ask your questions or provide the answers anonymously, but one can as well choose to register. More importantly, Quora questions and answers can easily be searched via Google while Facebook is completely private. Thus, more and more people are joining Quora to have intelligent conversations.
8. Vkontakte
Commonly known as VK, Vkontakte is a Russian-based social networking platform and is considered in Facebook Competition due to its Russian social media users. It is available in various languages but more common with the Russians. Its headquarters is in St. Petersburg, and as of December 2017, it has more than 460 million active members. The figure shows that it is indeed a growing social media platform that is growing immensely worth watching out for.
It was recently ranked as the 6th most popular social network. In consideration of the fact that its awareness is increasingly expanding to other parts of the world, it is projected that the membership of this particular platform will also increase significantly. It generated more than $130 million in the 2016 financial year mostly from advertisements.
9. YouTube
YouTube is a video sharing platform that allows users to view, upload, share and download a variety of user-generated media and corporate content. It is the leading website with unique visitors every month. It was founded in 2005 but has gradually grown to become a force to reckon with in the social media industry. It rivals Facebook particularly on video content sharing and viewing aspect with more than 167.4 million users in every month as of 2016.
Most of its revenue is generated through on-site advertising. As of the first quarter of 2017, it was estimated that over 1 billion hours of content was consumed on the YouTube platform every day, which shows its might in this particular industry. Youtube is owned by Google. Facebook Videos & Youtube videos, are always in competition. The day Facebook starts video monetization, that day Youtube will start facing big problems because a lot of the traffic. Hence, Youtube is considered as one of the top Facebook Competitors.
10. Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American technology company that specializes in offering a wide range of consumer and industrial software, hardware, and services. It was established in 1975, and it is currently regarded as one of the leading technology companies in the world.
In the aspect of competition with Facebook, Microsoft obtains its larger share of revenue from searching advertising. It also acquired LinkedIn in 2016; this is after it had purchased Skype in 2011, which also increases its potency as one of the major Facebook competitors in this industry. Microsoft major revenue, however, comes from the sale of the operating system, gaming consoles, hardware and hosting services among others. Even when considering Gaming consoles, Microsoft’s Xbox will be a major competitor to Oculus rift which is being launched soon.
11. WeChat
Tencent is a Chinese-based technology company that offers internet products and services. One of its social media products is WeChat. Tencent was established in 1998 and has significantly grown to become a major technology company both in China, Asia, and other countries. Tencent launched WeChat in 2011 which allows for social networking, e-commerce, instant messaging and web portals among others making it a considerable Facebook competitor primarily in Greater China and Asia in general.
Tencent has employed over 39000 employees to facilitate various products and services that they offer in the market and effectively counter the potency of its rivals in the industry. It generated a net income of $5980 million in the 2016 fiscal year. Tencent is a household name in the social networking industry and hence cannot be ignored by any serious competitor. Because Facebook is not allowed in China, Quite simply, Tencent’s WeChat becomes one of the Facebook competitors in China.
With the above Facebook Competition analysis, we had a close look at some of the top Facebook Competitors. Can you think of any more competitors of Facebook?
title is 13 facebook competitors but the list only contains 12!
Well, two of these things are owned by FB and thus not competitors. Everything else (accept possibly VK because I know nothing and want to know nothing about it) don’t do the same thing that FB does. So I’m still wondering what other company/website/app does what FB does?
fb creates its own competitors so it knows it will beat them.. MONOPOLY
as an immigrant, ( legal), I came to the USA to be free to say what I wish to say, with respect to other’s beliefs. On fakebook, I have been censored too many times. The hitlerian attitude the fakebook censors operate under is more on line with Mao Dzhe Dong, Khameini, ( iran mullah), Khomeini, ( iran’s first grand pubbah after the Shah), even hitler in 1938, Staline during his purge of more than 30 million people, particularly all his generals and high ranks in the military. Lenin did well too, as Mussolini. zuckerhitler is right on par with the tyrannical aspects of the socialists, marxists, communists.
And all people who belong to a centrist or rightist side of politics are censored, just as obama prescribed in his reign. IRS handling of the tax-exemption for the 501-3-C is the example we can use as the best form of tyrannical governing. fakebook uses, supposedly, an algorithm that prevents any “””terrorist””” mumbo-jumbo from being published. But they allow moslems to promote shariah law. Shariah law asks its followers to cut heads off, to cut hands off, to beat women, to rape women, to rape children, (sodomizing is allowed), to kill non believers in islam, to commit genocide against the Jews and Christians who refuse to convert. With NO REPERCUSSIONS whatsoever. Facts are, that the owner of fakebook, a Jew, zickerberg, is against Israel as a country. His “””religion””” is money, and how much more can he take from people, while securing his beliefs by censoring all the people from the right side of the political arena. zuckerhitler view of President Trump is that of a “outsider not belonging where he was elected by the people of the US”. Just as the DEMONRATS, the “professionals” who want to stay in power for the fame, the bribes, ( schumer, waters, cummings, pelosi, nadler, schiff,) all demonstrated to be corrupt to the core. Example: pelosi= $178 000 per year, with 70+ million dollars in the bank???. We all know that they are the worst liars who will promise, but NEVER fulfill their promises. On the other hand, President Trump promised the people, when running, that he was there to take care of the people. ( giving away his salary, is one point). Only using his own money to run, was another example. All the DEMONRATS said that nothing could be achieved by Tariffs. Well, their heads are now in the toilet, as most tyrants responded with accommodating answers to the promises. China, Mexico, North Korea, to cite a few. I can only say that fakebook is the most despicable form of tyranny, corrupting the government with their lobbyists, and banking on the eradication of the Freedom Lovers the right is serving, through the censoring of opinions like mine, asking President Trump to help the English Journalist jailed for reporting the rapes committed by the moslems, and jailed again. and giving that heroic man asylum in the US. Preventing the journalist from being beheaded by the moslems. I was censored for 30 days. For telling the truth. I am considered a terrorist to warn the American Public of what shariah law requires of its believers.
I agree with you Fascistbook is censorship by and for terrorists, racists that call conservatives racist and Nazi and that they are themselves racist and Nazi. First and foremost, socialists, communists, and fascists! Since Fascist book calls themselves a “platform” then that’s what they need to be and not censor conservatives. Since Fascistbook is editing people’s comments they need to be treated as a print media and the company needs to split it’s business into two spaces now as they have not dealt with their sabotage issues. I will be closing my Fascistbook down as I don’t want to be connected to a dishonest medium that supports the Leftist movement. I do not and will not post my personal family information or pictures on Fascist book they are a racist, bigoted, dangerous Socialist group of rejects from the rejects.
so, what’s the solution to the censorship?
My problem with Facebook is I just don’t like what Its become and I have an especially low opinion of founder Mark Zuckerberg. I have had friends put in proverbial Facebook Jail for posting or reposting something that was part of their belief system. Sorry Facebook but you are not anyone’s conscience or the world’s moral compass. I started seeing a lot of FB messages that the content of a message was “TAKEN DOWN” or “NO LONGER AVAILABLE” because “IT CONTAINED FALSE OR MISLEADIN INFORMATIOJN, IMPROPER CONTENT, OR THE INFORMATION COULD NOT BE VERIFIED”. Who at FB determines what is false, improper, or measures or sets the bar for verifiable information? So I continue to read and will eventually find a new social media platform to use. I will not trust anything out of either Russia or China though. Those platforms are far too closely tied to their communist governments. So the hunt continues for my FB replacement that I have deleted, cancelled, and severed all ties to. Articles like this describing alternative social platforms that contrast and compete with Facebook do help.