What Is Social Media?

By Adam Levy – Updated Nov 5, 2025 at 11:25 AM EST

Key Points

Social media platforms profit mainly from ads, influencing global ad spend.
A sizable user base enables precise ad targeting, boosting ad effectiveness.
Investing in platforms with a network effect may promise sustainable growth.

Social media are internet platforms that facilitate creating, sharing, and discovering user-generated content.

These platforms are some of the most commonly used websites and apps in the world, including Meta’s (META -0.82%) Facebook and Instagram, Alphabet’s (GOOG -0.20%) (GOOGL -0.57%) YouTube, Snap’s (SNAP -5.51%) Snapchat, Pinterest (PINS -0.60%), Twitter, TikTok, Reddit, and more. As such, it’s become a vital part of any internet-related industry.

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A person using social media on a smartphone and laptop. — Image source: Getty Images.

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Monthly Active Users (MAUs)

Monthly active users, or MAUs, refers to the number of unique users who engage with an application, service, or website at least once within a 30-day period.

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About the Author

Adam Levy is a contributing Motley Fool stock market analyst covering technology, consumer, and financial stocks and how policy, economic, and consumer trends shape personal finance, Social Security and retirement savings. Before The Motley Fool, Adam was a financial advisor at Edward Jones. He studied finance and electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

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Adam Levy has positions in Alphabet, Meta Platforms, and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Pinterest, and Tencent. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

What Is Social Media?