ow often do you surf social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter?
In 2022, Statista estimates that people will spend 147 minutes per day on social media.
As social media apps become more prevalent, they are more likely to be used by people on a daily basis.
In response to the growing popularity of social media applications, entrepreneurs are looking into creating their own. However one might think that giants like Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok have already taken over the market and there’s no more to come.
However, this is completely an erroneous assumption, since people always exert themselves for unique social media platforms that are first-rate to the previous ones, you always have ample room to launch your application.
Let’s take the example of TikTok.
The application was released in 2016 and since then received 656 million downloads cumulatively on Play Store and App Store. Tailored feeds of amusing short films set to music and sound effects are the key reasons behind successfulness of the application.
The ingredient of a successful social media application is a unique & modest idea and a do-to-approach to making the odds work in your favor.
In a nutshell, if you have a social media app development idea that you energetically believe can be turned into the next Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter or even outclass their success, then there is no better time than now to launch your idea.
Here in this blog, we will walk through the process of creating a social media app and other helpful information that will aid in the development journey.
So, let’s get started.
As you know, the enthusiasm for social media apps is booming. Below we have given you a factual portrayal of the growth of social media applications:
In light of the above-mentioned factors, it is evident that the future is expected to grow in the future creating profitable business fortunes.
What is the most popular social media app? This is a question that comes to mind when we look at mobile apps like Facebook, Instagram, and so on. Below we have outlined a few of the most popular social media apps list:
Social network apps are meant to allow people to connect with other people to share ideas and interests.
1. Facebook
Facebook is one of the most popular online social media platforms owned and managed by an American company called Meta.
The app allows people to conveniently connect with friends, family, or other people who share similar interests like them. Share photos, videos, updates, and even users can play games with any of their friends.
| Release Date | February 2004 |
| Monthly Active Users | 2.89 billion |
| Revenue Estimation | 117 billion U.S. dollars |
| Price | Free |
2. Twitter
Twitter is micro-blogging that allows people to communicate using short messages called tweets.
Twitter is more than a social network site; it allows people to discover news about today’s biggest events and news stories happening around them. Twitter offers users the option of following people or companies who share content they enjoy or simply conversing with friends.
Twitter is growing in popularity not only for individual users but also for markets to draw better engagement for their advertisement campaigns.
| Release Date | April 2010 |
| Monthly Active Users | 237.8 million |
| Revenue Estimation | 5 billion U.S. dollars |
| Price | Free |
Image-based social media apps allow people to post their pictures and short videos rather than text-based content.
1. Instagram
Instagram is the most renowned photo and video-sharing social networking app maintained by an American company called Meta.
Instagram is more of a photo-editing tool where you can upload pictures, and make your pictures look creative by adding special effects. The app also introduced a new feature called Insta Reel, which allows users to watch and create short clips.
| Release Date | April 2012 |
| Monthly Active Users | 2 billion |
| Revenue Estimation | 20.03 billion |
| Price | Free |
2. Snapchat
Snapchat is yet another image-sharing social media app that is highly popular among teens. In the Snapchat application, users can send photos and videos called snaps to other Snapchatters.
One of the most distinctive features of Snapchat is that the photos and videos shared on the platform disappear after a short period of time. Snapchat offers an extensive collection of lenses, filters, Bitmoji, and more to make pictures more expressive.
| Release Date | October 2012 |
| Monthly Active Users | Over 540 Million |
| Revenue Estimation | 4.12 billion U.S. dollars |
| Price | Free |
Instant messaging apps allow people to exchange text, images, video, or any other type of document over the internet in real-time.
1. WhatsApp
WhatsApp is a freeware, and cross-platform instant messaging social networking app that is also maintained by an American company named Meta.
Backed by end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp is gaining fame as the most secure application to communicate with people around the world privately.
WhatsApp sets you free from the iterative login process that most social media applications follow. All it needs is a phone number connected with the person you want to communicate with.
| Release Date | October 2010 |
| Global Unique Users | 2.26 billion |
| Revenue Estimation | 300 million U.S. dollars |
| Price | Free |
2. WeChat
WeChat is a free instant messaging and calling app available for both Android and iOS users.
The app is more than an instant chat application, it allows users to share voice, video, location, and many more conveniently. The application even allows users to make payments directly from the application securely. Certified by TRUSTe, WeChat gives you the highest level of privacy.
| Release Date | January 2011 |
| Monthly Active Users | 1.31 billion |
| Revenue Estimation | 52.5 million U.S. dollars |
| Price | Free |
Professional social media applications provide businesspeople and professionals with a means of communicating.
1. LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a professional social networking site that bridges the gap between professionals and employers.
The platform provides its registered users with access to all types of information, whether they are looking for a job, researching companies, or learning about the latest trends in their industry.
In essence, LinkedIn is the best platform where you can showcase all your skills, experience, and portfolio required to help you land the right job.
| Release Date | May 2003 |
| User Base | 875 million |
| Revenue Estimation | 13.8 billion U.S. dollars |
| Price | Free & Paid |
Advertisements are by far one of the most used monetization strategies for mobile applications.
According to Statista, the revenue generated from advertisements amounted to US$226.00bn in 2022. With an unfaltering CAGR of 11.24%, the advertisement revenue is sticking out to reach US$384.90bn by 2027.
As far as advertisement revenue goes, Facebook and Instagram dominate. Facebook alone generated 48.48 billion U.S. dollars from ads in 2021. Instagram made nearly 25.05 billion dollars in revenue from advertisements. (Statista)
The enthusiastic revenue generated from ads makes it one of the lucrative monetization strategies for social media application development.
Who Can Benefits From It:
Advertisements are meant to be the right choice for those applications that have a fair amount of traffic. If you are targeting a small audience, it might not be the right option for you.
Often advertisements are bothersome and result in a bad user experience. Therefore many social media applications like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok are adopting the subscription-based model where users need to pay a monthly fee to gain access to these applications.
Recently Instagram entitled creators to set customized prices that subscribers need to pay to gain access to their content.
Who Can Benefit From It:
In order to yield worthwhile outcomes from the subscription model, you need to offer unique content on your social media that cannot be found anywhere. Your application should have decent traffic to generate significant revenue.
Have you ever used LinkedIn? If so, then you might know that LinkedIn lets people use its services for no cost but restricts them in terms of features access. In order to access restricted features, users need to opt for the subscription model.
Looking at revenue sources of LinkedIn. According to Statista, LinkedIn generated 6.4 billion in revenue from its paid subscribers and 3.8 billion of revenue comes from advertisements.
With the above example, one thing is pretty clear if the subscription model is adopted in the right way can bring prodigious revenue.
Who Can Benefit From It:
This model proved to be the best choice when you have a huge audience for your app with different needs. You have some audiences who are satisfied with access to basic features, whereas others are interested in how to get the most out of your advanced features. By offering a mixture of the free and paid model you will be able to better serve the different needs of your app users.
Would you like to download an app that asks you to pay money for downloading that application? Most people tend not to do so.
YouTube is one of the most popular video-sharing platforms that have used the freemium model as their one core growth strategy.
YouTube has nearly 20 million paid subscribers alone in the United States, and by 2024, the number of paid YouTube subscribers is expected to reach 27.9 million. (Statista)
Estimating social media app development cost is one of the foremost steps. It is important to keep in mind that a variety of factors determine the cost of developing an app as mentioned below:
Since all the factors mentioned above vary from one project to another, providing the estimation regarding the cost is not feasible.
The best way to get an estimation regarding the cost of social media app development, approach an app development, and share your requirements with them. By evaluating your requirements the company will be able to provide you with the cost tailored to your project.
A smartphone’s social media application is one of the most frequently used applications. Across all age groups, such applications are gaining enormous popularity.
Now, if you’re also interested in developing a social media application, then the first question is how you can do so. The best way is to partner with a social media app development company that has extensive experience in creating social media applications.
Konstant Infosolutions founded in 2003 is an industry-leading mobile application development company in India. We are responsible for several popular mobile applications. Our portfolio showcases a few of the social media app development projects we have accomplished so far. Let’s connect with us to discuss your project and how we can turn this project into a success.
Facebook with 2.89 billion monthly active users emerges as the most popular social media application worldwide. Instagram is the second most popular social media platform.
The social media application landscape is changing at a rapid speed. Therefore application development companies need to adopt the latest technological advancements to secure a prominent position in the market. The following are the most trending technologies:
The selection of the best mobile app development platform depends on your requirement. For instance, if you want to deploy your application on both Android and iOS, then you can opt for cross-platform app development frameworks.
Manish Jain is the co-founder and Managing Director at Konstant Infosolutions. He is responsible for the overall operations of the company and has played a major role in bringing Konstant up from its humble beginnings and, with his immense energy and drive, transforming it into a globally trusted name in IT solutions.
Or send us an email at: [email protected]
