They are here to stay: The social networks. Facebook, Twitter are the first names associated with the term social network. After Facebook and twitter emerged, others followed. The numbers are staggering. In 2015, for the first time in the short history of the Internet, more than one billion users were active within a single day on Facebook alone. The trend of social networking has been a revolution in the marketing industry and, today, businesses, politicians or simply everyone who wants to broadcast a message, is relying in the social networks.

By the Numbers

Social networking sites have been booming, with people of all ages flocking onto various networks. Some sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or Tumblr enjoy global reach and popularity. Others focus on regional reach, as, for example the German professional networking site Xing or Cyworld, which is popular in South Korea.

Influence on Business, Society and Values

The influence on Big Business, society and culture is significant, in particular with younger generations. Millions of fans and followers, for example, log on every day to follow pop stars and movie stars on their Facebook and Twitter pages. In doing so, people connect to each other and "follow" opinion leaders in art, fashion or politics, thereby arguably subscribing to the values of the persons they follow.

Without doubt, social media have made and have been used to make big changes in society on a political level as well, as the uprising in North Africa in the "Arab Spring" has demonstrated.

Monthly Statistics for 2016

The latest monthly statistics show Facebook consolidating its strong lead across the globe with 1.6 billion user turning to the site every month. The business network LinkedIn has been performing well in recent years as well. Since 2012 LinkedIn added more than 250 million user (monthly).