How Social Media Apps Like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram Earn Billions In Revenue

August 19, 2021
Rinie Wilson
Posted in Digital Media

The presence of social media platforms has become very prominent in today’s world. Whether it is sharing a picture or a video to posting or searching for jobs, the use of these platforms has diversified immensely over the years.

While there may be numerous free services provided by social media platforms, it becomes interesting to understand how these tech giants earn billions of dollars each year.

Many of these apps are available for free in the app stores, however, they do provide some value-added services for some extra charge. Apart from that, advertisement plays a huge role in contributing to these brand’s revenue each year.

This is how these top five free leading social media apps earn billions in revenue.

1. Facebook

The primary source of Facebook‘s revenue is ad sales which the company advertises on its website and app as well. In the year 2020, Facebook has raised a revenue of Rs 6.38 lakh crore. Advertisements contributed to 98% of the total revenue. In this, 45% of the earnings come from the US and Canada while the rest 55% of the earnings come from the rest of the world. In 2020, Facebook has earned 9 thousand crores from the Indian market alone.

Headquarters: California, USA

Founded: 2004

Revenue: Rs 6.38 Lakh crores (Estimate of the year 2020)

2. Youtube

The main source of income for YouTube is through advertising. YouTube also makes money from subscriptions like premium. Apart from this, YouTube also takes its share in the earnings that the creators earn from Superchat, channel membership, etc.

Headquarters: California, USA

Founded: 2005

Revenue: Rs 1.46 Lakh crores (Estimate of the year 2020)

3. LinkedIn

LinkedIn‘s basic service is free, however, it charges users for different services. LinkedIn recruiter service generates 65% of LinkedIn’s revenue while 17% of revenue comes from LinkedIn’s premium service.

The company generates 18% of its revenue through advertising on its platform where companies, brands, and candidates get their ads showcased. According to 2018 data, LinkedIn’s revenue in India was Rs 548 crore.

Headquarters: California, USA

Founded: 2003

Revenue: Rs 59000 crores (Estimate of the year 2020)

4. Whatsapp

The top free app on the app and play store, WhatsApp, earns money in two ways. The first is with ‘WhatsApp Business API subscription’ and the second is through ‘Click to WhatsApp ad’.

For business people, WhatsApp offers premium services like ‘Bulk SMS’ and ‘Auto SMS’. For these services, the company charges money. Apart from this, you might have seen many ads by businesses in which there is an option to connect directly on WhatsApp. WhatsApp also charges money for this service as well.

Headquarters: California, USA

Founded: 2009

Revenue: Rs 37000 crores (Estimate of the year 2020)

5. Twitter

There are two big sources of Twitter‘s earnings. While 86% of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising services, the rest 14% of it comes from data licensing and other sources.

Advertising service includes promotion of products, promotion of tweets, promotion of accounts, promotion of trends. Apart from this, there is a subscription model for people who want to see historical and real-time data on Twitter.

Headquarters: California, USA

Founded: 2006

Revenue: Rs 28000 crores (Estimate of the year 2020)