Use of social networks in Catalonia: from 2013 to 2026

Twelve years that changed everything

In 2013, when we published the first version of this article, social media was an experiment that companies were starting to take seriously. Facebook had just gone public. Twitter set the news agenda. Instagram had been with photo filters for two years. WhatsApp was scrolling SMS. And TikTok, directly, did not exist.

Access was mostly from a computer. The smartphone was not omnipresent. Having a business page on Facebook was considered "doing digital marketing".

What happened since then was not a progressive evolution: it was a rupture. Social networks ceased to be an additional communication channel to become everyday infrastructure. And in Catalonia, this process has followed a particularly intense pace.

An adoption that did not stop: how they grew up in Catalonia

The growth of users in Catalonia has been constant and has gone against the tide with respect to some trends in the rest of Spain. While in Spain the number of users on networks decreased in 2024, Catalonia went from 6.1 million users in 2023 to 6.4 million in 2024, according to the second study carried out by IMAGINA in collaboration with the College of Marketing and Communication of Catalonia.

This data has context: Catalonia is among the European regions with the highest digital penetration, aligned with markets in the north and west of the continent that have historically led the adoption of these platforms.

Usage time also grew. Catalans spend an average of 2.3 hours a day on social networks, above the Spanish and European average. And the generational gap is significant: young people aged 16 to 30 spend more than 3 hours a day, while those over 66 spend around 1.6 hours. They are not passive users: they are active, frequent users with well-established habits.

The platforms that have grown in Catalonia are WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. Those that have lost users are Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). The displacement of platforms is clearly seen: Instagram went from 57% in 2023 to 63% in 2025, while Facebook fell from 38% to 35%, according to the Longitudinal Survey of the Centre for Opinion Studies (CEO) of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Networks are no longer a complement – they are part of life

Here is the most relevant change of the last decade, and the one that is most difficult to internalize from a business perspective.

In 2013, social media was a space that people visited. A destiny. He went in, looked in, walked out. The rest of life took place off-screen.

Today this separation does not exist. Networks are integrated into the daily routine as naturally as transport or means of payment. They are consulted when waking up, during meals, on public transport, before going to sleep. They are the channel through which information, entertainment, shopping recommendations, contact with brands and access to news arrive.

The CEO's figure is eloquent: only 14% of Catalans say they do not use any social network. The remaining 86% have them integrated into their day-to-day lives. And the IAB Spain 2026 study confirms that the average user in Spain already uses 7.2 social networks per month, compared to 5.3 in 2025. It's not that there's more supply: it's that adoption has diversified.

In Catalonia, each user uses an average of three networks a day. The youngest reach five. Not as one-off entertainment, but as a habitual environment for consumption, conversation and decision-making.

This change has a direct implication for brands: it is no longer about being on networks. It is about being present in a space where customers live part of their lives, and doing so in a way that is consistent with how that space works.

What people do in there: reasons for use and behavior

97% of users in Spain use the networks for entertainment purposes, according to IAB Spain 2026. 81% to interact. 77% to be informed. Entertainment has gained weight every year as the main motivation, and this figure marks how content should be oriented.

In Catalonia there is an additional element that does not appear in the national data: the use of Catalan on social networks. The Survey of Linguistic Uses of the Population of Catalonia confirms that 67.1% of users use Catalan on social networks with some regularity. Instagram is the only network in which Catalan speakers have more penetration than Spanish speakers, by a margin of two points.

This is not a minor figure for brands with a presence in the Catalan market. The language in which a brand communicates on social networks is a positioning decision, not just a reach decision.

Social networks as a digital marketing engine for your business

Networks are not just a place where people are entertained. They are the point where purchase opinions are formed, products are discovered and transactions are generated. And in Catalonia, usage data confirm that this commercial role is fully consolidated.

84% of users in Catalonia have bought a product or service through social networks in the last month, according to the IMAGINA 2024 study. Instagram and TikTok lead this phenomenon, driven by recommendation algorithms and the influence of content creators.

Nationwide, 54% of users use social media to search for information before making an online purchase, and 44% recognise that social media has influenced their final decision. In Generation Z, this figure rises to 56%.

This has specific consequences for any business with a digital presence:

Visibility on networks is already part of the purchase funnel. A customer who doesn't find you on Instagram or LinkedIn isn't that they don't buy from you: it's that they don't directly consider you. The networks work as a first credibility filter before the customer arrives at your website.

The content must fit the consumption mode, not interrupt it. 40% of users consider social media advertising useful and relevant, but only 23% accept personalized content. The formats that work are those that resemble organic content: short videos, product demos, real testimonials, presence of people.

Each platform has a different role in the decision-making process. Instagram leads as a channel for discovery and inspiration. LinkedIn works for the professional and B2B environment, and according to IAB Spain 2026 it is already the second most used platform commercially among professionals. TikTok accelerates product discovery in young segments. WhatsApp, with 94% monthly penetration, is the most effective service and loyalty channel there is today.

Advertising investment has rotated. Instagram concentrates almost half of advertising investment among professionals in the sector in 2026. Facebook has ceded this leadership. YouTube maintains its position as a video consumption platform. TikTok continues to climb in the investment ranking.

Organic is not enough. The organic reach in networks has fallen structurally in all algorithms. Platforms are advertising business models. Without paid investment, visibility is reduced to one's own audience and virality, which cannot be planned. The organic-paid combination is the standard, not the exception.

For Catalan SMEs, the practical conclusion is that it is not a question of being on all platforms, but of being good on the ones used by their customers. With criteria, with consistency and with enough budget to make the presence generate returns.

What is expected to happen with networks and artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence has been operating within social networks for years. The algorithms that decide what content appears in each user's feed have long been AI systems trained to maximize attention span. But in 2025 and 2026, AI entered content production itself, and that has changed the rules.

87% of users in Spain consider it essential to label AI-generated content, according to IAB Spain 2026. The demand for transparency about the origin of content is real and growing. For brands that produce with AI, it's no longer just a matter of regulation: it's a factor of trust.

What is happening in 2026 is a paradox. AI tools have lowered the cost of content production, which has increased the total volume of what is published on networks. And precisely for this reason, algorithms have begun to penalize 100% artificial content and reward authenticity: videos without filters, "lo-fi" formats, real people talking on camera, local micro-influencers with small but committed communities.

It's not that AI doesn't work. It is that when everyone uses the same tools to produce the same thing, the differentiation is once again in the human.

For the coming years, the scenario points in three directions:

AI as a decision-maker of content, not just as a production tool. The algorithms of 2026 already analyze complex signals such as real attention span, quality of interaction, thematic affinity or previous user behavior. They are no longer competing to publish more: they are competing to better understand how each platform's recommendation system works.

Integrated social commerce. TikTok Shop is expanding. Instagram and Pinterest are developing increasingly native shopping features. The user who discovers a product on video and buys it without leaving the application is already a reality in northern European and Asian markets, and will reach the Catalan market more strongly in the coming years.

Network research as an alternative to search engines. A growing portion of Gen Z is already searching TikTok and Instagram before Google. This has direct implications for SEO, for social media presence and for how a brand manages its visibility in the digital environment.

Conclusion: networks evolve every day, and this will not stop

IAB Spain published the 2026 study just a few days ago. Next year there will be new figures. Some platforms will have risen, others will lose relevance, and there will probably be new formats that barely exist today.

What does not change is the underlying logic: social networks are the space where Catalans spend an important part of their day, where opinions about brands and products are formed, and where purchasing decisions are made. Being here with criteria, coherence and strategy is not optional for a business that wants to grow in today's digital environment.

If you haven't reviewed how your company works on networks for a while, the data for 2025 and 2026 are a good starting point to do so. Not to be everywhere, but to prioritize where it makes sense to invest.