TikTok, Reels, jobs: online habits by the minute
Sixty-seven percent of the global population used the internet this year – more than ever before. What do they spend their time on?
Image by by Mauricio Santana/Getty Images
Sixty-seven percent of the global population used the internet this year – more than ever before. What do they spend their time on?
TikTok users upload an average of 16,000 videos every minute of every day. Almost 140 million Reels are played on Facebook and Instagram. And 9,000 LinkedIn members apply for a job.
These are just some of the digital habits of a record 5.52 billion people who used the internet in 2024, according to an annual report released by the data company Domo, which has been tracking online trends for 12 years.
According to the report, the total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is expected to reach 149 zettabytes by the end of 2024 and is projected to surpass 394 zettabytes by 2028.
Almost 3.5 million YouTube videos were watched every 60 seconds this year, over 251 million emails were sent, and nearly 19 million text messages were delivered, the data shows.
Every minute, people conduct nearly six million Google searches, Netflix subscribers stream close to 363,000 hours of content, and Snapchat users send over three million snaps.
Meanwhile, more than $126.7 million worth of food orders are placed on DoorDash, and 852 Airbnb stays are booked. More concerningly, 4,080 records are compromised in data breaches.
The report also highlights the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in shaping the daily habits of internet users. Google’s Gemini chatbot receives 8,574 visitors every minute, while Apple’s Siri answers over a million questions.
“The phenomenal acceleration of generative AI over the past two years has dominated the digital conversation, and this year’s Data Never Sleeps shows how we’ve reached a new tipping point – AI is primed to dethrone competitive mainstays of the internet era,“ said Josh James, founder and chief executive of Domo.
James added: “In the year ahead, we’ll be watching how this shift changes our broad range of digital activity, impacts the competitive landscape, and accelerates corporate investment in AI-ready data and tech.”
According to the report, digital platforms are experiencing “explosive usage” as the global internet population nearly doubled this year compared to just three billion users a decade ago.