Social media use in Romania in slight decline, TikTok to rise and surpass Facebook

TikTok is increasingly popular in Romania, while social media use overall is in a slight decline, according to data from the 2024 digital report conducted by DataReportal.

The number of Romanian users on TikTok, 8.97 million, is close to surpassing the number of users on Facebook, 9.05 million. While Facebook lost 1.3 million users, TikTok gained 1.7 million in the same period.

Instagram is far behind in this top, with only 5.3 million users. Only about 1.5 million Romanians, or 7.7% of the total population, use X, the former Twitter.

Most likely, 2024 will be the first year when TikTok will surpass Facebook in Romania, according to an analysis by online marketer Paul Ardeleanu, quoted by Profit.ro. The same analysis highlights that Romanians increasingly look to social media to discover products or services.

Even more important than sheer user numbers, Ardeleanu points out, is that a local TikTok user spends more time on this platform than any other user of any other platform, namely 32 hours and 30 minutes per month. In second place is YouTube with 30 hours and then Facebook with 13 hours.

Romania was home to 13.30 million social media users in January 2024, according to the study, meaning 67.4% of the total population. 73.6% of Romania’s total internet user base, regardless of age, used at least one social media platform in January 2024.

Nevertheless, social media in Romania is in a slight decline, both in terms of the number of users and the time allocated to platforms. The number of users has decreased from 13.5 million to 13.3 million, and the time spent on social media has decreased from 2 hours and 32 minutes to 2 hours and 7 minutes.

(Photo source: Tobias Knoepfli | Dreamstime.com)