Social media usage in the Netherlands - Statistics & Facts

Social media usage trends

The Dutch population enjoys a wide variety of activities on the internet, most of which are related to social networking. However, Dutch individuals also use the internet to watch YouTube videos, streaming services, or to play video games. Most of the population will visit social media at least one to three times a day. Teens are particularly present online; nearly 27 percent of them visit social media more than 20 times a day. The most popular social network activities are sending private messages and liking other users' posts. In the Netherlands, both desktop computers and mobile devices are popular devices for social media access. Currently, the country has a mobile social media use reach of 96.6 percent.

What Is the leading social media app in the Netherlands?

As of 2021, Facebook was by far the leader in terms of social media market share, accounting for about 68 percent of social media traffic. Compared to other European countries, the Netherlands ranked eleventh in terms of Facebook audience size. Facebook’s core platform is not the only popular Facebook product in the Netherlands: the online reach of Instagram (also owned by Facebook) was 8.18 million users in February 2021. Most Dutch users of the photo and video-sharing social network app were 25- to 34-year-olds. Recently, short video platform TikTok made its mark on the Dutch social media scene. From 2020 to 2021, TikTok underwent a significant user growth, especially among Generation Z.

Social media marketing in the Netherlands

Due to the near constant social network usage and online exchanges by consumers, social media marketing has become an indispensable tool for brands. Recent industry data suggest that social media advertising spending in the Netherlands amounted to 779 million U.S. dollars in 2020. Desktop is projected to remain the biggest channel for social media advertising, outperforming mobile expenditure by a significant margin.

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