Daniel Slotta
Research expert covering Greater China
Social media in Turkey - statistics & facts
Social media usage in Turkey has been increasing continuously, attracting more and more users annually. Furthermore, the number of Turkish social media users has been following an upward trend and is forecasted to reach over 76 million by 2027. For many Turkish people, social media has become one of the main tools for communication, entertainment, information, and keeping in touch with friends, relatives, famous people, and brands. Especially for most teenagers and young adults, accessing social media platforms has become the sole purpose of internet use lately.
In Turkey, the share of the general population who use the internet for social networking has been growing each year for every age group. Since there are plenty of apps with something to offer for every taste and interest, it appears that the social media platforms will keep their popularity among Turkish people in the years to come.
Leading social media platforms in the country
Although it showed a decreasing trend recently, Facebook held more than one-third of the social media market share, which made it the market leader in the country. Nevertheless, the popular photo and video-sharing app, Instagram became the most used platform by Turkish social media users, accounting for nearly 92 percent penetration rate. Aside from WhatsApp, internet users prefer using many other social media sites and applications for different purposes. The video-sharing website YouTube came in first in the ranking of most popular social media platforms for news among Turkish people, while the photo and video-sharing application Instagram placed second.Social media users
During the COVID-19 pandemic, staying at home with social distance restrictions, feelings of loneliness, and a desire to be in touch with loved ones caused people to spend more time on social media channels. Turks were no exception to this, using social networking services mostly to follow family and friends. Moreover, the wide spread of social media affected individuals to start using it for following and reading news and articles besides mainstream media outlets. For more than half of the population, reading news stories was a pressing reason to use social media.In Turkey, the share of the general population who use the internet for social networking has been growing each year for every age group. Since there are plenty of apps with something to offer for every taste and interest, it appears that the social media platforms will keep their popularity among Turkish people in the years to come.
