Facebook’s popularity in Ireland has grown to its highest ever level, according to the latest Social Networking Quarterly by Ipsos MRBI.
In a survey of 1,000 people aged 15 or older, 63% said they owned a Facebook account, with 70% of those saying they used it on a daily basis.
The percentage of people who owned a Facebook account had stood at 60% in November 2014, down from 61% in August and 62% in May.
Twitter is the second most popular social network in the country but trails by a significant margin, according to the survey, with 28% of respondents saying they owned an account.
This is down on a peak of 30% in May 2014, with 37% of Twitter account owners saying they access the service on a daily basis.
Business-focused social network LinkedIn is the country’s third most popular network with 24% of people having an account, though just 12% of those use it on a daily basis.
Around 22% of people said they had a Google+ account, with 23% of those using it on a daily basis.
Meanwhile picture sharing site Instagram, which Facebook acquired in 2012 for $1bn, has an Irish user-base of around 18%, according to Ipsos MRBI, with 47% of those using the service every day.
In addition to social networks, the survey also asked respondents about their usage of social messaging services.
Microsoft-owned Skype was the most popular, with 47% of people saying they owned an account, though this is down 4 percentage points on May 2014.
Usage of Skype is also particularly low, with just 7% of account holders using it every day.
Facebook’s Messenger service is second most popular, with 46% of people having an account. A further 46% of those use it on a daily basis, the survey found.
Viber is third most popular, with 43% of respondents owning an account and 28% of those using it on a daily basis.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has a 38% market-share, with 47% of account holders accessing the service daily.
Meanwhile less than a quarter of respondents – 22% - had a Snapchat account, according to the survey.
However the service - which allows people to send photos and videos with an expiration date – had the best engagement with almost 60% of them using it on a daily basis.
