Study by Xeit: Instagram is growing among all generations

As part of the social media study, which has been published annually since 2009, the Zurich agency Xeit once again surveyed more than 1,000 Swiss people about their social media usage behavior. The results show that there have been significant changes and shifts compared to previous years.

The Instagram platform, which is primarily geared to photos and short videos, made strong gains in terms of usage time. For the first time in the past decade, it is the most intensively used social media platform in Switzerland.

A major contributor to this has been Generation Z youth, who are once again becoming more engaged on the platform. This is exciting because in the last two years, the short video platform TikTok has risen sharply in favor among teenagers and become a serious competitor to the long-standing platforms Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.

YouTube, for example, is currently having an increasingly difficult time with the GenZ: According to the survey, the video search engine is losing enormous appeal among young people (-11 percent).

Influencer influence increases across all age groups  

It is not only Generation Z, whose usage behavior is the subject of a special analysis in the study, that is inspired by social media influencers. Their influence has increased across all age groups, most strongly among 20- to 39-year-olds.

Other findings:

• Youtube remains by far the platform with the most users.
• The use of social TV is losing relevance with the end of IGTV.
• Short form video content is currently the most attractive format for social media content, regardless of the age of the user.
• Relevance is and remains the central criterion for social media content.
• WhatsApp loses slightly in attractiveness, but is still unbeaten.
• More blogs are being read again, preferably on the topics of travel and food.
• The popularity of podcasts knows only one direction: up.
• The GenZ loves video content.
• With the return to normal after the pandemic, the Swiss:in are also no longer so tired of online.

Xeit's social media study is being published for the 13th time. The agency thus presents numerical findings on the use of Instagram, TikTok, Linkedin, Youtube and Co. in Switzerland. As in previous years, the study includes a specific evaluation on Generation Z and compares the results with those of the population.

Link to download the Preview version of the study