Social media platforms generate billions of dollars in revenue from U.S. youth: Findings from a simulated revenue model
Level 4 - case-series / case-control
Level 4 by design analogy: economic simulation model based on secondary survey and market research data.
OpenAlex W4390266235 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0295337
What was done
Researchers developed a simulation revenue model using public survey and market research data from 2021 and 2022. The model estimated the number of U.S. child (ages 0–12) and adolescent (ages 13–17) users and calculated annual advertising revenue generated from these age groups across six major social media platforms for the year 2022.
What was found
The simulation estimated that in 2022, annual advertising revenue derived from youth (ages 0–17) across the six platforms totaled nearly $11 billion. In three of the six platforms, young users generated approximately 30% to 40% of total platform advertising revenue.
Why it matters
These findings quantify the financial stake social media companies have in youth engagement, informing policy discussions on platform transparency, data disclosure mandates, and youth advertising regulations.
Limits
The findings are simulated estimates based on secondary public surveys and market reports rather than proprietary, direct platform accounting data. The abstract does not specify the sample sizes of the underlying surveys, the names of the specific platforms analyzed, or confidence intervals for the estimates. Health outcomes were not directly measured.
Cited by
- supports Social media companies generated approximately $11 billion in advertising revenue from users under the age of 18 in a single year.