[su_heading style=”default” size=”13″ align=”center” margin=”20″]Ireland’s most popular online messaging service has been revealed and surprisingly, it’s not Viber, WhatsApp or Snapchat.[/su_heading]
According to a report by Ipsos MRBI, Skype is in fact the most popular way for Irish people to communicate online with 51% of Irish adults owning an account.
Coming in second place at 40% is the ever popular Viber, a service that has grown dramatically in recent years.
[su_quote style=”default”]Skype is in fact the most popular way for Irish people to communicate online [/su_quote]
Snapchat, which lets users send photos and videos that self-destruct after a certain time limit, is also growing in popularity. As of May 2014, the service was used by 21% of Irish adults, a jump of over 10% since August last year.
With so many messaging services on offer, some have naturally seen a decline.
Windows Live Messenger has dropped from 21% in February to just 17% in May. Similarly, Facebook Messenger has fallen from 39% in February to 34% in May.
Ireland’s Top 5 Online Messaging Services Infographic
However, although Facebook messenger has a seen a fall in numbers, it still remains the third most popular online messaging service in Ireland.
According to another recent report by Iposos MRBI, Facebook is also still the most popular social network in Ireland with a whopping 62% of Irish adults owning an account.
The second most popular social media network is Twitter which is used by 30% of Irish adults with 1 in 10 adults tweeting daily.
Following closely behind in third place is LinkedIn, which is used by 26% of Irish adults. This figure has increased from 13% in May 2012.
Pinterest and Instagram have also seen a rise in users, proving that Ireland’s fascination with image based social media is not going anywhere soon. Learn more about images and social media here.
With the vast amount of platforms available for users, it is not surprising that some social media networks have had their user numbers decrease.
Ireland’s Most Popular Social Networks Infographic
In 2006, Bebo had up to 800,000 registered Irish users and was the second most visited website in the country after Google. Today, Bebo is used by just 4% of Irish adults.
[su_quote style=”default”]some networks have seen their user numbers decrease thanks to the vast amount of options on the market[/su_quote]
Google+ has also seen a decline. Despite users of the site growing between August and February, in May, its numbers dropped to 20%. Previously, 24% of Irish adults had used the network.
Finally, for the first time, social media dating networks appeared on the report with 4% of adults using Tinder and 2% using Plenty Of Fish – Ireland is clearly a country looking for love!
Which of these online messaging services and social media networks do you use and which one is your favourite? Tweet us @TravelMedia_ie and let us know.
Statistics sourced from Ipsos MRBI