Social media firms gained $11 billion in ads from under-18 users’ engagement in 2022, finds study

New Delhi: Social media giants like Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and Snapchat collectively gained nearly $11 billion in advertising revenue in 2022 from users younger than 18 years, according to a new US-based study.

Researchers said that approximately 30-40 per cent of the advertising revenue generated by Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube was attributable to young people.

They found that while among users aged 12 and under, YouTube derived the greatest ad revenue of about $1 billion in 2022, among those aged 13-17 years, Instagram generated the highest revenue of about $4 billion.