Home topics technology social-media-blogs Media Releases Social Media Media Releases Aussies still love Facebook, despite issue-laden year, Hootsuite and We Are Social report finds Media Release February 1, 2019 Media Release Hootsuite, the leader in social media management, in collaboration with We Are Social, the global socially-led creative agency, today released Digital 2019. The eighth annual report, which examines digital trends and social media use across 230 countries and territories, uncovered that more than one million new people go online every day, and that 45 percent of the world— nearly 3.5 billion people annually—are logging in to their favourite social platforms. That’s a near 9 percent increase year-over-year despite growing concerns of fake news, fake followers and data privacy in 2018. In Australia, social media use is on the rise with 18 million people or 72 percent of the population actively using Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or Twitter, up from 66 percent in 2017. Taking top spot is Facebook, which retains its position as the most popular social media network Down Under with a total advertising audience of 16 million monthly active users, which remains unchanged despite the social network’s issue-laden year. Twitter and Snapchat, however, are falling behind in the social media race, seeing their active advertising audiences decline by 2.3% and 14% respectively. All up, however, Australians spend just over 90 minutes per day scrolling through their social feeds. “Although social media came under increased scrutiny and saw diminished trust among users in 2018, people around the world are