According to the recent eMarketer report, “Worldwide Social Network Users: 2013 Forecast and Comparative Estimates,” an impressive one in four people around the world will use social networks by the end of this year. This ratio means that the ranking of social users by varied region will actually mirror the regional shares of the global population by 2014.

“This was an inevitable development, as social network usage has moved from taking place primarily in advanced markets to being a common activity for people around the world,” the study notes.

Additionally, the report revealed that by 2015, more tech-savvy markets of North America, Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe will have the highest increase in users worldwide. And according to eMarketer, beginning in 2016, Latin America will surpass Western Europe in social network usage. The study expects the fastest jump in social network users will come from India, Indonesia, Mexico, China and Brazil.

This widespread usage of social media has prompted researchers at eMarketer to increase their 2013 forecast for total users by 100 million since their August 2012 report.

“This upward adjustment is based on new data that indicates higher-than-expected totals for internet users in India, Japan, Australia, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Russia and the Middle East and Africa; new data showing higher estimates for UK social network users than previously forecast; and a new breakout of social network users in the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Sweden,” the marketers reveal.

The largest area of social media users comes from Asia-Pacific, with an audience of 777 million people and a share of over 40 percent of social network users worldwide expected by the end of this year. This is more than triple the size of Latin America’s entire social media audience, which is the second-largest worldwide.

More impressive is that by the end of this year, over 60 percent of internet users around the world will use a social network at least once per month and will rise to more than three out of four internet users by 2016.

Source: eMarketer