In just a few years, social media platforms have radically changed lives. They have become a means of communication, a news channel, a TV, a diary, a dating site, and a virtual meeting place.
Even though these internet giants offer their social media services free of charge, they generate annual sales worth billions of dollars. For instance, in 2021, Meta (formerly Facebook) reported revenue of $118 billion, while TikTok generated over $58 billion in revenue during the same period. Similarly, Twitter's revenue for the year was approximately $5 billion.
How they attain these figures is no longer a secret. The platforms finance themselves predominantly through the sale of target group-specific advertising placements and the commercial exploitation of their users' data. Some social networks also sell data records directly to third parties. The platforms grant themselves the right to do so in their terms of use.
Consumers are part of a modern barter system. An exchange of comprehensive, digital tracking for the free use of the platforms.
Personal data has become the new gold, making the social media and networking boom the gold rush of the 21st century. This has led to a critical question - what is the value of our data? How much do companies such as Meta, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat earn from their users for every minute spent on their platforms? The answers to these questions can be found deep within these companies' quarterly reports and balance sheets, where Average Revenue per User (ARPU) is disclosed. Our team of data analysts at heyData have scrutinized these reports and calculated the ARPU based on other data, such as average screen time. We have conducted a small calculation experiment that demonstrates how much social media and networks earn from our data, thus answering the question:
What is our data worth?
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Learn moreA calculation has revealed the amount of money that social networks earn from our screen time - per minute, day, month, and year.
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