Here’s what happens every minute on the internet in 2021

Aug 5, 2021

With the collaboration of Statista.

Two women take a selfie using a smartphone from a viewing deck overlooking a city skyline.

Each minute in 2021, 695,000 stories were shared on Instagram... that's a lot of selfies. Image: REUTERS/USA TODAY Sports

Claire Jenik

Data Journaliste, Statista

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New research has shed light on what happened every minute on the internet in 2021.
It found that every 60 seconds more than 500 hours of content was uploaded on YouTube and 695,000 stories were shared on Instagram.
Nearly 70 million messages were sent via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.
In that same minute, there were two million swipes on Tinder and 1.6 million U.S. dollars was spent online.

The digital world is a universe in its own right and a very fast moving one at that. Myriads of downloads and uploads, posts and searches, messages sent and received, listens and streams happen every minute on the world wide web.

an infographic explaining what happens every minute on the internet

197.6 million emails were sent each minute. Image: Statista

Have you read?

According to data compiled by Lori Lewis and published on the site AllAccess, 60 seconds on the web in 2021 consist of more than 500 hours of content uploaded on YouTube, 695,000 stories shared on Instagram and nearly 70 million messages sent via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. That same internet minute also contains more than two million swipes on Tinder as well as an incredible 1.6 million U.S. dollars spent online.

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What is the Forum doing to improve online safety?

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media has partnered with the World Economic Forum to improve the safety of digital environments, addressing harmful and misleading media while protecting consumers and brands.

The Global Alliance for Responsible Media, now a flagship project of the Forum's Media, Entertainment and Sport Platform, is led by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and brings together advertisers, agencies, media companies and industry organizations to improve digital safety at scale.

Together, they collaborate with publishers and platforms to address harmful and misleading media environments, developing and delivering against a concrete set of actions, processes and protocols for protecting brands and consumers.

Partners involved in the Global Alliance for Responsible Media include companies such as LEGO Group, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, NBC Universal - MSNBC, Dentsu Group, WPP (through GroupM), Interpublic Group, Publicis Groupe, Omnicom Group, Facebook and Google.

Together with members and partners on our Media, Entertainment and Sport platform, we are aggregating solutions to major industry disruptions while driving greater social cohesion and helping companies remain accountable to the global social good.

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