Tumblr Beats Facebook As Fastest Growing Social Platform

Tumblr is taking the front seat as the fastest growing social media platform, putting the leader of social media, Facebook, far behind.

Facebook may still be the biggest social networking platform with 1.35 billion active users, but rival services are growing much faster than the social leader. The latest research report by Global Web Index shows that Tumblr's active user base has spiked in great number in the last six months with 120 percent while Facebook's growth was almost stagnant at 2 percent.

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Global Web Index also looked at other growth angles but found Facebook nowhere close to the first spot. In terms of member growth, Pinterest took lead with 57 percent while Facebook came last with just 6 percent. Comparing Facebook's statistics with other social platforms, services like Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and even Google+ beat the social networking giant with nominal margin.

The data shows Facebook's growth has reached saturation while other social media services are recording continues growth.

In terms of mobile apps, Facebook Messenger came second to Snapchat as the fastest growing app, TechCrunch reports. But the Messenger's growth was mainly due to Facebook's recent push to move its users from the main app to its standalone chat app. It appears, once all users have migrated to Messenger, the growth is likely to drop.

'Facebook has some major challenges to face,' wrote Jason Mander, head of trends and author of the report. 'Firstly, people are growing tired of it, with 50% of members in the UK and US saying that they're using it less frequently than they used to (rising to 64% among teens).'

Other players in the list include Instagram, Line, Pinterest, Kakao Talk, Vine and other mobile apps in descending order.

Global Web Index's data, which is a 45-page report, is based on the data collected from 170,000 users across 32 markets.