Social media penetration rate APAC 2025, by country
As of February 2025, South Korea had the highest social media penetration rate in the Asia-Pacific region, at around 95 percent. This was followed closely by Singapore with about 88 percent. In comparison, Afghanistan had a social media penetration rate of around 9.4 percent that year.
Social media in APAC
While Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia have relatively high social media penetration rates, the number of active social media users in the Asia-Pacific region paints a very different picture. China dominates the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region in terms of the number of active social media users, surpassing the one-billion mark. This far exceeds the number of users in second-placed India. In comparison, during the same period, South Korea had about 48.9 million social media users, while Singapore had only around 5.2 million.
What are the most popular social networks?
Facebook boasted an enormous number of monthly active users in the Asia-Pacific region, cementing itself as a firm favorite among Asia-Pacific social media users. While global platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and YouTube enjoy widespread popularity across the region, many markets have their own preferences for local social media platforms due to cultural relevance, government censorship, and tailored features. For instance, in China, WeChat dominates as an all-in-one app for messaging, payments, and social networking, while Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has the highest monthly active users among short-form video apps in China. In South Korea, KakaoTalk is widely used for messaging, as well as integrated services like mobile payments, gaming, and even ride-hailing. KakaoTalk’s monthly active users in South Korea has consistently increased in the past years.
