Dutch people leaving Twitter en masse; more use WhatsApp than Facebook

The popularity of social media is still growing in the Netherlands, though Dutch users are making less and less use of Twitter. Young people in particular are using Twitter less, instead opting for Snap Chat and Instagram. Both these platform showed a big increase in Dutch users this year, according to an annual report by research form Newcom. According to Newcom, the number of Dutch Twitter users decreased from 2.8 million to 2.6 million. The number of daily active users decreased from 1 million to 900 thousand. The researchers found that 11 percent of Dutch people stopped using Twitter this past year. The decrease is most significant among young people between the ages of 15 and 19 years. A decrease of 48 percent was seen in this age group. Whatsapp is the largest social network in the Netherlands with 9.8 million users. Facebook came in second place with 9.6 million and YouTube came in third with 7.2 million Dutch users. LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter came in 4th, 5th and 6th. Facebook also saw a decrease in the number of young Dutch users. 12 percent fewer young Dutch used the social media site. The Dutch youth are rather opting for Instagram (2.1 million users), Pinterest (2 million users) and Snap Chat (1 million users). All three these platforms saw a significant increase in daily users this past year, but none more so than Snap Chat. Snap Chat saw an increase of 69 percent from 320 thousand to 541 thousand daily users, mostly teenagers. Daily Instagram users increased by 37 percent from 722 thousand to 992 thousand daily users and Pinterest saw 28 percent increase from 261 thousand to 334 thousand.