This is evident from a representative survey among 7000 Dutch people Newcom. Of all social media, the use of Twitter fell the most: from 3.5 million to 3.1 million, a decrease of 13 percent.
“In the thirteen years that we have been conducting this research, we have only seen such a large decrease once before. That was in 2019 when there was a lot to do about fake news on Facebook and Twitter,” says Hans Hoekstra of Newcom.
Many women dropped out
“We see many more women than men drop out of Twitter, which has always been a very masculine platform anyway,” says Hoekstra. “The sentiment on the platform appears to have more impact on women, who are less active on apps where discussions about current affairs are central. There is a link to the polarization in society. Many Twitter dropouts are done with the negative sentiment.”
Of the Twitter users who dropped out, 34 percent like ‘another platform better’, 27 percent say they ‘don’t feel at home anymore’ and another 27 percent say that Twitter ‘does not provide them enough’. Fake news (19 percent) is also often cited as a reason to quit Twitter.
Ever since the take over Musk made several controversial changes to Twitter. Three-quarters of staff were laid off and many blocked accounts were reinstated. Also, the messages less tightly controlledwhich leads to much more hate speech.
Use Mastodon still ‘marginally’
Twitter alternative Mastodon has 286,000 users in the Netherlands, of which about 100,000 use it daily. “That is still quite marginal. We see that many people who stop using Twitter are done with these types of platforms,” says Hoekstra. “I don’t expect Mastodon to have a million Dutch users any time soon.”
Take care of Facebook and YouTube
Facebook use decreased by 5 percent, to 9.9 million Dutch people. Young people in particular stop using Facebook, the main reason being that they ‘like other platforms more’. Hoekstra: “But make no mistake: Facebook is still very large in the Netherlands. Especially if you look at active use, so the people who post something themselves. About two-thirds do. Facebook has the most active users.”
YouTube now has as many Dutch users as Facebook, also 9.9 million. But the daily use of the video service is decreasing slightly. “People use YouTube less intensively. They more often choose to spend their time on other apps,” says Hoekstra.
Grow TikTok and Snapchat
The use of TikTok in the Netherlands increased, just like in previous years, increased sharply again, by 34 percent. In 2022, TikTok mainly grew among people over 40, but the use of the video app is also increasing among people in their twenties and early thirties.
Snapchat (+21 percent) and Instagram (+18 percent) also received more Dutch people. But the daily use of Instagram among young people is declining in the meantime. “Parent company Meta has work to do to find the younger groups, because that is where the future lies. That is also important for advertisers,” says Hoekstra. “Snapchat has succeeded in retaining the somewhat older young people and the app remains a phenomenon among the youngest groups. All their friends and girlfriends are also on it.”
Instagram now has 7.8 million users in our country, LinkedIn has 5 million, Pinterest 4.6 million, TikTok 4 million and Snapchat 3.9 million.
Onward BeReal
For the first time too BeReal included in the research. BeReal now has 1.3 million Dutch users, of which 800,000 users who use the app daily, which are mainly young people and early twenties. In the group aged 20 to 25, for example, a quarter use BeReal every day.
BeReal asks users to take a picture of themselves and their surroundings at a random time every day, without filters. This means that the app is seen as a alternative to the ‘fakeness’ on apps like Instagram and TikTok.
According to Hoekstra, BeReal can become a keeper. “The high daily usage is a good sign. In the past, a fast-growing app like BeReal would be taken over by a larger platform, but we haven’t seen that kind of takeover for years.” Such an acquisition might not be approved by regulators.
Telegram hangs
WhatsApp is by far the largest of the messaging apps with 13.3 million Dutch people. Competitor Telegram hardly gained any new Dutch users and remains stuck at 1.7 million. Discord is also growing little in the Netherlands (1.5 million) and the use of Signal is even declining (785,000).
The total number of Dutch social media users grew from 13.7 to 14.1 million. The age groups from the age of 40, in particular, have started to use social media more.
The Dutch are active on social media for an average of 114 minutes a day. For the group aged 15 to 19 this is an average of 161 minutes per day and the over-65s use social media for an average of 88 minutes per day.
