Culture
The World’s Most Used Apps, by Downstream Traffic
The World’s Most Used Apps, by Downstream Traffic
Of the millions of apps available around the world, just a small handful of the most used apps dominate global internet traffic.
Everything connected to the internet takes bandwidth to view. When you look at something on your smartphone—whether it’s a new message on Instagram or the next few seconds of a YouTube video—your device is downloading the data in the background.
And the bigger the files, the more bandwidth is utilized. In this chart, we break down of the most used apps by category, using Sandvine’s global mobile traffic report for 2021 Q1.
Video Drives Global Mobile Internet Traffic
The biggest files use the most data, and video files take the cake.
According to Android Central, streaming video ranges from about 0.7GB per hour of data for a 480p video to 1.5GB per hour for 1080. A 4K stream, the highest resolution currently offered by most providers, uses around 7.2GB per hour.
That’s miles bigger than audio files, where high quality 320kbps music streams use an average of just 0.12GB per hour. Social network messages are usually just a few KB, while the pictures found on them can range from a few hundred KB for a low resolution image to hundreds of MB for high resolution.
Understandably, breaking down mobile downstream traffic by app category shows that video is on top by a long shot:
Category | Downstream Traffic Share (2021 Q1) |
---|---|
Video Streaming | 48.9% |
Social Networking | 19.3% |
Web | 13.1% |
Messaging | 6.7% |
Gaming | 4.3% |
Marketplace | 4.1% |
File Sharing | 1.3% |
Cloud | 1.1% |
VPN and Security | 0.9% |
Audio | 0.2% |
Video streaming accounts for almost half of mobile downstream traffic worldwide at 49%. Audio streaming, including music and podcasts, accounts for just 0.2%.
Comparatively, social network and web browsing combined make up one third of downstream internet traffic. Games, marketplace apps, and file sharing, despite their large file sizes, only require one-time downloads that don’t put as big of a strain on traffic as video does.
A Handful of Companies Own the Most Used Apps
Though internet traffic data is broken down by category, it’s worth noting that many apps consume multiple types of bandwidth.
For example, messaging and social network apps, like WhatsApp, Instagram, and Snapchat, allow consumers to stream video, social network, and message.
Even marketplace apps like iTunes and Google Play consume bandwidth for video and audio streaming, and together account for 6.3% of total mobile downstream traffic.
But no single app had a bigger footprint than YouTube, which accounts for 20.4% of total global downstream bandwidth.
Category | Top Apps (Category Traffic) | Category Traffic Share |
---|---|---|
Video Streaming | YouTube | 47.9% |
Video Streaming | TikTok | 16.1% |
Video Streaming | Facebook Video | 14.6% |
Video Streaming | 12.1% | |
Video Streaming | Netflix | 4.3% |
Video Streaming | Other | 5.0% |
Social Networking | 50.5% | |
Social Networking | 41.9% | |
Social Networking | 2.4% | |
Social Networking | Odnoklassniki | 1.9% |
Social Networking | 0.7% | |
Social Networking | Other | 2.9% |
Messaging | 31.4% | |
Messaging | Snapchat | 16.5% |
Messaging | Facebook VoIP | 14.3% |
Messaging | LINE | 12.1% |
Messaging | Skype | 4.1% |
Messaging | Other | 21.6% |
Web | 41.2% | |
Web | Other | 58.8% |
The world’s tech giants had the leading app in the four biggest data streaming categories. Alphabet’s YouTube and Google made up almost half of all video streaming and web browsing traffic, while Facebook’s own app, combined with Instagram and WhatsApp, accounted for 93% of global social networking traffic and 45% of messaging traffic.
Traffic usage by app highlights the data monopoly of tech giants and internet providers. Since just a few companies account for a majority of global smartphone internet traffic, they have a lot more bartering power (and responsibility) when it comes to our general internet consumption.
United States
How Much Do Americans Trust the Media?
Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point since Trump won the 2016 presidential election.

How Much Do Americans Trust the Media?
Media trust among Americans has reached its lowest point in six years.
Gallup began its survey on media trust in 1972, repeating it in 1974 and 1976. After a long period, the public opinion firm restarted the polls in 1997 and has asked Americans about their confidence level in the mass media—newspapers, TV, and radio—almost every year since then.
The above graphic illustrates Gallup’s latest poll results, conducted in September 2023.
Americans’ Trust in Mass Media, 1972-2023
Americans’ confidence in the mass media has sharply declined over the last few decades.
Trust in the mass media | % Great deal/Fair amount | % Not very much | % None at all |
---|---|---|---|
1972 | 68 | 24 | 6 |
1974 | 69 | 21 | 8 |
1976 | 72 | 22 | 4 |
1997 | 53 | 31 | 15 |
1998 | 55 | 35 | 9 |
1999 | 55 | 34 | 11 |
2000 | 51 | 37 | 12 |
2001 | 53 | 33 | 14 |
2002 | 54 | 35 | 11 |
2003 | 54 | 35 | 11 |
2004 | 44 | 39 | 16 |
2005 | 50 | 37 | 12 |
2007 | 47 | 35 | 17 |
2008 | 43 | 35 | 21 |
2009 | 45 | 37 | 18 |
2010 | 43 | 36 | 21 |
2011 | 44 | 36 | 19 |
2012 | 40 | 39 | 21 |
2013 | 44 | 33 | 22 |
2014 | 40 | 36 | 24 |
2015 | 40 | 36 | 24 |
2016 | 32 | 41 | 27 |
2017 | 41 | 29 | 29 |
2018 | 45 | 30 | 24 |
2019 | 41 | 30 | 28 |
2020 | 40 | 27 | 33 |
2021 | 36 | 29 | 34 |
2022 | 34 | 28 | 38 |
2023 | 32 | 29 | 39 |
In 2016, the number of respondents trusting media outlets fell below the tally of those who didn’t trust the media at all. This is the first time that has happened in the poll’s history.
That year was marked by sharp criticism of the media from then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
In 2017, the use of the term ‘fake news’ rose by 365% on social media, and the term was named the word of the year by dictionary publisher Collins.
The Lack of Faith in Institutions and Social Media
Although there’s no single reason to explain the decline of trust in the traditional media, some studies point to potential drivers.
According to Michael Schudson, a sociologist and historian of the news media and a professor at the Columbia Journalism School, in the 1970s, faith in institutions like the White House or Congress began to decline, consequently impacting confidence in the media.
“That may have been a necessary corrective to a sense of complacency that had been creeping in—among the public and the news media—that allowed perhaps too much trust: we accepted President Eisenhower’s lies about the U-2 spy plane, President Kennedy’s lies about the ‘missile gap,’ President Johnson’s lies about the war in Vietnam, President Nixon’s lies about Watergate,”
Michael Schudson – Columbia Journalism School
More recently, the internet and social media have significantly changed how people consume media. The rise of platforms such as X/Twitter and Facebook have also disrupted the traditional media status quo.
Partisans’ Trust in Mass Media
Historically, Democrats have expressed more confidence in the media than Republicans.
Democrats’ trust, however, has fallen 12 points over the past year to 58%, compared with 11% among Republicans and 29% among independents.
According to Gallup, Republicans’ low confidence in the media has little room to worsen, but Democrat confidence could still deteriorate and bring the overall national reading down further.
The poll also shows that young Democrats have less confidence in the media than older Democrats, while Republicans are less varied in their views by age group.
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