When you log in to your favorite social media app, you may not realize how it's connected to other popular social media platforms. Globally, many of the top social networking services own (or are owned by) the same parent companies.

Invest♔ors who want to capitalize on the popularity of the latest social media trends may wish to keep this in mind. In this article, we take a closer look at some of the companies that own leading social media platforms and services worldwide, including names like Meta and Microsoft.

Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms Inc. (META) owns and operates three of the top four social networking platforms by 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:monthly active users (MAUs). It is likely best known for Facebook, which had 3.07 billion MAU as of October 2024, making it the largest social media platform globally by this measurement.

Meta also owns 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Instagram, the popular photo, video, and private messaging platform, as well as messaging apps Messenger and WhatsApp. Both WhatsApp and Instagram have two billion monthly active users as of October 2024.

Tencent Holdings

Tencent Holdings is a Chinese technology and entertainment 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:holding company with a portfolio of popular social networking platforms throughout Asia. Of t♚hese, the largest by MAU is Weixin, also known in English as WeChat, which had just over 𓆉1.37 billion MAU as of October 2024. WeChat is a messaging platform that also offers payment services and other tools.

Tencent also owns QQ, an instant messaging and web portal service, which reported 571 million MAU as of October 2024.

ByteDance

ByteDance is a Chinese tech giant best known outside of Asia for the video-focused social media platform TikTok. The U.S. government has raised concerns over TikTok's potential use in unauthorized surveillance operations and its impact on children and teens. Despite this, TikTok remains widely popular: As of October 2024, it had 1.69 billion monthly active users.

ByteDance also owns and operates other social media platforms that are available in China, including Douyin—an alternative to TikTok focused on the Chinese market—and content discovery and news aggregator Toutiao, among others.

Microsoft

Microsoft (MSFT) is 🌟a software, electronics, and hardware maker that is perhaps not best known as a social networking company, despite its prominence in the U.S. and abroad as one of the leading office software and tech firms.

But, the company owns some of the most popular networking companies for both personal and business use. These include LinkedIn, the professional networking platform with one billion members worldwide. Microsoft also owns the video and voice communications platform Skype.

Alphabet

One of the primary offerings of tech giant Alphabet (GOOG/GOOGL) is YouTube. While not a conventional social media platform in the format as others mentioned, YouTube allows content creators and audiences to 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:share ente𝓡rtainment and information. As of October 2024, there were 2.53 billion monthly active YouTube users worldwide.

Sina

Chinese technology firm Sina provides mobile and various online services. It also owns Weibo, a popular microblogging platform with roughly 583 million monthly active users as of October 2024.

X Corp. (Formerly Twitter)

The microblogging site X has become one of the most influential social media sites, with about 590 million monthly active users worldwide as of July 2024. In October 2022, billionaire 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Elon Musk purchased the social media platform for $44 billion and took it private, eventually renaming it X Corp.

Following the acquisition, the company has struggled to find direction due to mass layoffs and abrupt changes in the company's business model.

Other Social Media Companies

Other social media companies maintain significant user bases, either regionally or globally, but they either are private companies or are publicly traded companies without a parent company or subsidiary 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:social media platforms. These include (among others):

• Chinese video-sharing app Kuaishou
• Camera and social media platform Snap (SNAP)
• Instant messaging service Telegram
• Content aggregator and discussion platform Reddit

The Bottom Line

The ever-growing network of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:social media companies has shifted significantly since the industry first developed. Some of the major players in the space have been acquired by other companies, such as Instagram, which was acquired by Meta Platforms in 2012. Other social media platforms are subsidiaries of different c🐭ompanies, such as TikTok, which is owned🧸 by ByteDance.