PROJECT REPORT

ON

“Analysing consumer behaviour towards usage of Social Media Platforms”

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT FOR
THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF

BACHELOR OF COMMERCE (H)

2018-2021
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

MS. PRIYANKA GUPTA

FACULTY, VIPS
SUBMITTED BY:

SHIVAM GUPTA
11717788818
6th SEMESTER, B.COM (H)

Vivekananda School of Business Studies

Vivekananda Institute of Professional studies
AU Block (Outer Ring Road), Pitampura
Delhi-110034

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 INDEX
S. No Particulars Page No.

I. Student Declaration 3

II. Certificate from Guide 4

1 Executive Summary 5

2 Chapter 1: Introduction 6

3 Chapter 2: Review of Literature 30

4 Chapter 3: Research Methodology 37

6-28
5 Chapter 4 : Data Analysis and Interpretation 42
Chapter 2: Review of Literature
29-35
6 Chapter 5 : Findings and Suggestions 61
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
7 Chapter 6 : Conclusion
6-28 64

8 ChapterBibliography
Chapter 7 : References/ 2: Review of Literature 67

9 Chapter 8 : Annexures 70
6-28

Chapter 2: Review of Literature

2
 STUDENT UNDERTAKING

This is to certify that I have completed the Project titled “Analysing

consumer behaviour towards usage of Social Media Platforms” under
the guidance of Ms. Priyanka Gupta in partial fulfillment of the
requirement for the award of degree of Bachelor of Commerce at
Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Vivekananda School of
Business Studies, New Delhi. This is an original piece of work and has
not been submitted elsewhere.

SHIVAM GUPTA

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 CERTIFICATE FROM FACULTY GUIDE

This is to certify that the project titled “Analysing consumer behaviour

towards usage of Social Media Platforms” is an academic work done by
Shivam Gupta submitted in the partial fulfillment of the requirement for
the award of the degree of Bachelor of Commerce Honors from
Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Vivekananda School of
Business Studies, New Delhi., under my guidance & direction. To the best
of my knowledge and belief the data & information presented by him in
the project has not been submitted earlier.

Ms. Priyanka Gupta

Signatures

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This study focuses on Exploring consumer usage of Social Media Platforms. This
study provides a step towards a huge research opportunity as social media is not
slowing down any time soon. The purpose of this study is to figure out when people
use social media platforms, how addicted they are to specific social media features,
how much time they spend daily on different social media platforms, what are the
features that drive them to open their social media accounts often, which is their
preferred social media platform. The study focuses majorly on 4 social media
platforms majorly which are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.

The research has been done using descriptive research method as the variables were
required to be reserved for careful deliberation and the data collection has been of
qualitative in nature with primary data only.

It was concluded that majority users are youngsters. Instagram is climbing the most
popular platform ladder very quickly. Most users visit their social media platforms
more than once daily. People generally spend time browsing through social media
platforms at night. Once or twice a month a lot of people post their own content.
Most people access social media platforms before going to bed. About 40% of the
sample accepted about being social media addicts. Approximately 50% of the
sample wished for a unified platform with their choice of features all in one. Covid-
19 has majorly impacted the social media environment and all the consumers
associated with the use of it. Its impact could be both positive and negative.

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 CHAPTER 1:

INTRODUCTION

6
 1.1INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY

In little more than a decade, the impact of social media has gone from being an entertaining extra to
a fully integrated part of nearly every aspect of daily life for many. In little more than a decade,
the impact of social media has gone from being an entertaining extra to a fully integrated part of
nearly every aspect of daily life for many. As quickly as social media has insinuated itself into
politics, the workplace, home life and elsewhere, it continues to evolve at lightning speed, making
it tricky to predict which way it will morph next. “Social media isn’t a utility. It’s not like power
or water where all people care about is whether it works. Young people care about what using one
platform or another says about them. It’s not cool to use the same site as your parents and
grandparents, so they’re always looking for the hot new thing.”

Since March 2020, the world has been locked indoors due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Amidst this Covid-19 lockdown, many of the people have switched to the increasing use of social
media websites and other apps to pass on their spare time. It is no longer a hidden fact that the
usage of social media websites such as Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and WhatsApp have
unnecessarily surged high than routine. Physical activities such as running, walking, jogging, etc.
have now been replaced by social media activities such as virtual fitness classes, continuous
newsfeed browsing, and video chats. Changes in the social connecting patterns have adversely
affected people’s lifestyle and in turn, their mental health. Most of the individuals have a tendency
to be socially active and interact with their fellows to avoid internal conflicts.

Researches highlight the rising number of mental challenges people face in the wake of the crisis
and social distancing measures. Health anxiety, depressive disorders, somatic complaints, anxiety,
insomnia, agitation, etc. are distress calls associated with the compulsive use of social media and/or
the internet. Furthermore, social media has become a common mean which might lead to
marginalization, associated stigmas, communalism, hatred, violence, etc. Yet, in such times, social
media has benefitted individuals with myriads of advantages. Firstly, it has allowed people to stay
in touch with each other and share information about physical and emotional well-being. It has
enabled us to spare time and re-connect with our lost contacts right from the comfort of our homes.

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 1.2 INTRODUCTION OF THE TOPIC

Social media refers to user-created content (audio, text, video, multimedia) that is published and
shared online. It is also the online technology that allows users to share content and communicate
with one another. Social media has changed how we live our lives and affected how nearly every
industry does business. People use social media to stay informed, compare and buy products, and
keep in touch with family and friends. Companies also use social media to reach customers. They
have in-house social media departments or hire consulting firms to help them develop a social
media strategy, market their products, and manage their profile across various types of social
media. Nonprofits and government agencies use them to spread information about their programs
and services. In a general sense, social media has been around since the beginning of the Internet,
but Six Degrees, the first social-networking site, launched in 1997. Social media are generally
defined as forms of electronic communication where users can create communities to share
information, ideas, pictures, videos and other content. Social networking is a subcategory of social
media, which generally entails the creation and maintenance of online relationships both personal
and professional via various platforms Social media are generally defined as “Internet-based,
disentranced, and persistent channels of mass personal communication facilitating perceptions of
interactions among users, deriving value primarily from user generated content”.

In other words, social media can be any form of computer-mediated communication where
individuals not only set up profiles to present who they but also generate content of their own, see,
and interact with content of their friends or other users online. Social networking sites (SNSs), a
subdomain of social media, have been defined as a networked communication platform in which
participants
1) have uniquely identifiable profiles that consist of user-supplied content, content provided by
other users, and/or system-provided data;
2) can publicly articulate connections that can be viewed and traversed by others; and
3) can consume, produce, and/or interact with streams of user-generated content provided by their
connections on the site.

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 USES OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN DIIFERENT SECTORS:

Use of social media for small businesses:

One of the more prominent users of social media is small businesses and small business owners.
It’s because small business owners are the customers of social media websites. Social Media
websites are used by small business owners to market their business to the targeted demographic
by type of audience, location, age group etc. Today, social media websites are in existence due to
the advertising potential and higher conversion rate offered by them for business owners. Almost
all kind of businesses can be promoted and you will see how these products and services are being
hawked by social media platforms. Some social media websites such as Facebook are even
providing an option to blog, promote and boost sales. Everything that is important for a business
to grow their business, is the business of Facebook now.

Use of social media for digital marketing companies:

The use of social media for digital marketing companies is similar to small businesses. Even digital
marketing companies provide social media marketing services for small business owners. In this
process, digital media marketing companies create viral content. Viral content on current causes
that engages the entire community and people. Sometimes they create funny content, another day
they create inspirational content and so on. And in middle of all this content bombardment, they
promote the business content to them.

Many digital marketer and companies create spam groups and communities to collect user’s
information to target for cold calling. It’s just another way for them to exploit the large number of
gullible social media users who don’t mind giving out their phone number and email address for a
free pen drive ‘lucky draw’ contest.

Use of social media for teachers:

Teachers and educators can be the most impactful users of social media websites, they can use it
to explore educational content, create multimedia presentations, 3D animations etc to explain

9
 concepts of science and mathematics in a better way. They can create and write a meaningful post
that able people to think and act generously.

Use of social media for data analysis expert:

Social media is a top platform for market research and decision-making process. Billions of people
use social media for learning, marketing, shopping and decision making. Now when they use social
media, they create and generate data that enables data analysts to do the analysis on the related
subject. Such as data about latest marketing campaigns and shared content. When this data is
processed along certain parameters it gives birth valuable information that helps companies and
corporations take key decisions regarding their business interests for the future.

Use of social media for government:

There are thousands of government departments in any country such as forest department, income
tax and sales tax department, EPF department, transportation department, consumers, RTI and
many others. These units of Government can use social media to make users aware and educated
about their and own rights and the facilities provided by these units.

Use of social media politicians:

Everyone knows that politicians use social media to test the waters of public opinion on certain
topic and causes. They use it to connect with people. They use to make people aware and educated
about the services and importance of the campaign. They hire digital marketing companies and
marketers or ghost bloggers. While many uses to troll the opposition party. One way or another,
social media has become the nerve center around which election and poll-related strategies are
formed and executed.

Use of social media for news media

The role of news media in the development of the country is bigger than others. News media gets
almost 70% users attention on social media. There are 1000 of news websites you can see on social
media and everyone is trying to get the attention. Everyone is trying to educate and driving traffic
to their websites on even cheap and lowest quality post. But that’s how they do it and this how this

10
 business works. We should aim for honest and meaningful content that is meant to educate the
masses not divide them.

Advantages of Social Media for the Society

1. Connectivity:
The first and main advantage of the social media is connectivity. People from anywhere can
connect with anyone. Regardless of the location and religion. The beauty of social media is
that you can connect with anyone to learn and share your thoughts.

2. Education:
Social media has a lot of benefits for the students and teachers. It is very easy to educate from
others who are experts and professionals via the social media. You can follow anyone to learn
from him/her and enhance your knowledge about any field. Regardless of your location and
education background you can educate yourself, without paying for it.

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 3. Help:

You can share your issues with the community to get help and giddiness. Whether it is helping
in term of money or in term of advice, you can get it from the community you are connected
with.

4. Information and Updates:

The main advantage of the social media is that you update yourself from the latest happenings
around in the world. Most of the time, Television and print media these days are biased and
does not convey the true message. With the help of social media, you can get the facts and true
information by doing some research.

5. Promotion:
Whether you have an offline business or online, you can promote your business to the largest
audience. The whole world is open for you, and can promote to them. This makes the
businesses profitable and less expensive, because most of the expenses made over a business
are for advertising and promotion. This can be decreased by constantly and regularly involving
on the social media to connect with the right audience.

6. Noble Cause:
Social media can also be used for the noble causes. For example, to promote an NGO, social
welfare activities and donations for the needy people. People are using social media for
donation for needy people and it can be a quick way to help such people.

7. Awareness:
Social media also create awareness and innovate the way people live. It is the social media
which has helped people discover new and innovative stuffs that can enhance personal lives.
From farmers to teachers, students to lawyers every individual of the society can benefit from
the social media and its awareness factor.

8. Helps Government and Agencies Fight Crime:

It is also one of the advantages of the social media that it helps Governments and Security
Agencies to spy and catch criminals to fight crime.

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 9. Improves Business Reputation:
Just like it can ruin any business reputation, it can also improve business sales and reputation.
Positive comments and sharing about a company can help them with sales and goodwill. Since
people are free to share whatever they want on the social media, it can impact positively when
good words are shared.

10. Helps in Building Communities:

Since our world has different religions and beliefs. Social media helps in building and
participating in the community of own religion and believes to discuss and learn about it.
Similarly, people of different communities can connect to discuss and share related stuffs. For
example, Game lover can join games related communities, car lover can join communities
related to cars and so on.

Disadvantages of Social Media

1. Cyberbullying:
According to a report published by PewCenter.org most of the children have become victims
of the cyberbullying over the past. Since anyone can create a fake account and do anything
without being traced, it has become quite easy for anyone to bully on the Internet. Threats,
intimidation messages and rumors can be sent to the masses to create discomfort and chaos in
the society. This research shows that approximately 1 in 20 students commits suicide in
cyberbullying cases.

2. Hacking:
Personal data and privacy can easily be hacked and shared on the Internet. Which can make
financial losses and loss to personal life. Similarly, identity theft is another issue that can give
financial losses to anyone by hacking their personal accounts. Several personal twitter and
Facebook accounts have been hacked in the past and the hacker had posted materials that have
affected the individual’s personal lives. This is one of the dangerous disadvantages of the

13
 social media and every user is advised to keep their personal data and accounts safe to avoid
such accidents.

3. Addiction:
The addictive part of the social media is very bad and can disturb personal lives as well. The
teenagers are the most affected by the addiction of the social media. They get involved very
extensively and are eventually cut off from the society. It can also waste individual time that
could have been utilized by productive tasks and activities.

4. Fraud and Scams:

Several examples are available where individuals have scammed and commit fraud through
the social media. For example, this list contains the 5 social media scams that are done all the
time.

5. Security Issues:
Now a day’s security agencies have access to people personal accounts which makes the
privacy almost compromised. You never know when you are visited by any investigation
officer regarding any issue that you mistakenly or unknowingly discussed over the internet.

6. Reputation:
Social media can easily ruin someone’s reputation just by creating a false story and spreading
across the social media. Similarly, businesses can also suffer losses due to bad reputation being
conveyed over the social media.

7. Cheating and Relationship Issues:

Most of the people have used the social media platform to propose and marry each other.
However, after some time they turn to be wrong in their decision and part ways. Similarly,
couples have cheated each other by showing the fake feelings and incorrect information.

8. Health Issues:
The excess usage of social media can also have a negative impact on the health. Since exercise
is the key to lose weight, most of the people get lazy because of the excessive use of social
networking sites. Which in result brings disorder in the routine life. This research by
seeker will shock you by showing how bad your health can be affected by the use of the social
media.

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 9. Social Media causes death:
Not just by using it, but by following the stunts and other crazy stuffs that are shared on the
internet. For example, bikers doing the unnecessary stunts, people doing the jump over the
trains and other life threatening stuffs. For example in this video 14 year old from Mumbai was
doing stunts on a running train which caused his death. These types of stunts are performed by
the teenagers because of the successful stunts made and shared over the social media.

10. Glamorizes Drugs and Alcohol:

One of the disadvantages of the social media is that people start to follow others who are
wealthy or drug addicted and share their views and videos on the web. Which eventually
inspires others to follow the same and get addicted to the drugs and alcohol.

“The question is, are we at a point where the social media organizations
and their activities should be regulated for the benefit of the consumer?”

–Pinar Yildirim

Impact of Covid-19 on the usage of social media

COVID-19 and the resulting stay-at-home orders have changed just about everything, including
our relationship with the internet, how often we use it and how we use it. We are online more than
ever, working from home, attending school from home, catching up with friends via video calls.
And as stores and restaurants around the globe shuttered their doors for months on end, we all
headed to the internet to order essential items online, causing unprecedented online order numbers.
During a time of social distance and limited contact with others, social media became an important
place to interact. Social media platforms are meant to connect people and helped the world remain
connected, largely increasing usage during the pandemic. Since many people are asked to remain
home, they have turned to social media to maintain their relationships and to access entertainment
to pass the time.

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 The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the usage of social media by the world's general
population, celebrities, world leaders, and professionals alike. Social networking services have
been used to spread information, and to find humor and distraction from the pandemic via Internet
memes. However, social distancing has forced lifestyle changes for many people, which put a
strain on mental health. Many online counselling services that use social media were created and
began to rise in popularity, as they could safely connect mental health workers with those who
need them. As consumers become more concerned about wellbeing for themselves and others,
their worry over digital wellbeing has dropped. People don’t monitor screen time as they did a year
ago, especially among those who stay online most. parents are also getting in on it. Baby Boomers
are implementing social media into their daily habits. Brands should realize that an older audience
is also within reach. Those trends are more compelling than the expected trajectory among younger
consumers, especially in business. Gen Z has lost a bit of its exuberance as recently as mid-March,
when the pandemic took hold. More than other generations, they’ve regressed to old patterns.

Some facts:

 The pandemic has shifted users away from worry about self-image in their social media
presence, with 42% saying there’s less pressure to represent themselves unrealistically.
 More men (46%) than women (31%) say they’re more open about personal struggles on
social platforms.
 Escapism and humor still rank highly for most-shared kinds of posts.

Inspiration comes from friends and family (74% chose this as the top priority of social media), and
local communities (52%). Online groups bring self-isolating users together and to share advice
and knowledge. Will this persist when the pandemic ends?

“Social media isn’t a utility. It’s not like power or water where all
people care about is whether it works. Young people care about what
using one platform or another says about them.”

–Jonah Berger
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 1.3 Industry Profile

Social media has become extremely popular (and a lucrative industry) in recent years. Social media
accounted for 19 percent of all online minutes at the end of 2015, according to Cross-Platform
Future in Focus U.S.: 2016, from ComScore. Revenue in the social media industry is increasing
rapidly. In 2015, worldwide social networking advertising revenue reached $23.68 billion,
according to eMarketer. This is a 33.5 percent increase from 2014.

The social media industry provides another great benefit: jobs for people with a variety of
educational backgrounds and skill sets. There are many rewarding careers in the industry. Social
media managers, software engineers and designers, computer programmers, and other computer
scientists are in demand, but so are workers with creative backgrounds such as writers, graphic
designers, and marketing professionals. Workers with no technical or creative background may
find jobs in administration, finance, law, and other areas. Several types of companies create and/or
utilize social media. Some companies, such as Google offer both social networking products
(Google+), other types of software (such as the search engine Chrome), and hardware (Pixel,
Chromecast, etc.). Others, such as Pinterest, specialize in social media. There are also thousands
of start-ups that are still seeking to capture the public’s interest or find venture capital funding to
build their brands.

BACKGROUND OF THE INDUSTRY

The Internet began as a project of the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1960s to create a
comprehensive, indestructible computer network that could communicate even when under enemy
attack. An internetwork (a network of networks) called ARPANET was created to meet this goal,
although the networks were still not linked worldwide. Eventually military and defense
contractors, universities, science agencies, and other organizations were allowed to connect to this
internetwork. In 1983 a new protocol called Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) was integrated into ARPANET, making the internetwork widely accessible. Many
Internet historians cite ARPANET’s switching over to TCP/IP as the event that marked the birth
of the Internet.

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 In the early 1980s breakthroughs in integrated circuit technology made personal computers more
affordable, and commercial Internet services and applications became popular. But online
information was difficult to access because of poor computer interfaces. In 1989 a physicist named
Tim Berners-Lee developed a way to organize information in a more logical fashion by using
hypertext to link portions of documents to one another. He called it the World Wide Web.

Today social media sites are extremely popular, and they are expected to remain so for years to
come. In the future, artificial intelligence, natural language search, augmented reality, virtual
reality, and other technologies (which are often cited as features of Web 3.0) will change the way
people use and interact on social media.

The Internet and social media have so quickly become an essential part of the fabric of daily life
for so many people that it’s difficult to imagine a world without them.

The Internet and social media are inextricably linked. Many important events in the history of the
Internet that have made it what is today: a key tool for business, commerce, communication, and
entertainment. Social media is often used to meet these goals. Here are some of the major events
in the history of the Internet and social media.

Social networking sites have been around since 1997 when Six Degrees, the first social networking
site, was launched. But in the past five years or so, social networking has moved beyond a hobby
and become an obsession for many people. With every year, a record number of people are using
social networking sites, and more companies are using social media to interact with customers and
to market and sell their products and services. In 2010, 970 million people worldwide used social
media, according to Statista.com. In 2015, a record-breaking 2.14 billion people worldwide used
social media. By 2021, this number is expected to increase to 2.20 trillion.

Facebook remains the most popular social media platform, according to the Pew Research Center
(PRC). In 2019, 79 percent of online adults used Facebook. While young people continue to use
Facebook in large numbers, many older adults are joining. In 2016, 62 percent of online adults age
65 and older reported that they used Facebook—14 percent higher than in 2015.

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 FACEBOOK

About Facebook, Inc.

Facebook is the face of social media, for good and bad. The social networking juggernaut, which
continues to grow quickly even as it struggles with public relations and other issues, lets users
share information, post photos and videos, play games, and otherwise connect with one another
through online profiles. The site, which allows outside developers to build apps that integrate with
Facebook, boasts more than two billion monthly active users. In addition to its namesake platform,
Facebook owns Instagram (photo/video sharing), Messenger and WhatsApp (instant messaging
and payments services), and Oculus (virtual reality technology and content). The company
generates revenue through advertising; the US accounts for about 45% of total sales.

Operations

In addition to the more than 2 billion monthly Facebook users, WhatsApp and Messenger together
claim nearly 3 billion monthly users and Instagram counts about 800 million monthly users.

Beyond these offerings, the company has investments in longer-term technology initiatives such
as artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and connectivity efforts.

Geographic Reach

Global in its reach, Facebook generates about 55% of its revenue from outside of the US. The
majority of its international business comes from customers located in western Europe, Australia,
Brazil, Canada, and China.

The company has offices and data center facilities located all over the world.

Sales and Marketing

Facebook uses a global sales force in more than 40 offices worldwide to attract and retain
advertisers (advertising accounts for nearly all of revenue). It also serves advertising customers
through a self-service ad platform.

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 Users have generally found the site through word-of-mouth, as well as internal marketing efforts.
Facebook spent $324 million on its own advertising and promotional expenses during 2017,
compared to $310 million and $281 million in 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Company Background

The firm was launched in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg as an online version of the
Harvard Facebook. (The name comes from books of freshmen's faces, majors, and hometowns that
are distributed to students.) In 2012 Facebook began publicly trading after filing one of the largest
IPOs in US history.

Facebook, Inc., incorporated on July 29, 2004, is focused on building products that enable people
to connect and share through mobile devices, personal computers and other surfaces. The
Company also enables people to discover and learn about what is going on in the world around
them, enables people to share their opinions, ideas, photos and videos, and other activities with
audiences ranging from their friends to the public, and stay connected by accessing its products.
The Company's products include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus. The
Company also engages in selling advertising placements to marketers. Its advertisements let
marketers reach people based on a range of factors, including age, gender, location, interests and
behaviors. Marketers purchase advertisements that can appear in multiple places, including on
Facebook, Instagram, and third-party applications and Websites.

Facebook enables people to connect, share, discover and communicate with each other on mobile
devices and personal computers. There are various ways to engage with people on Facebook,
including News Feed, which displays an algorithmically-ranked series of stories and
advertisements individualized for each person. Instagram enables people to take photos or videos,
customize them with filter effects, and share them with friends and followers in a photo feed or
send them directly to friends. Messenger allows communicating with people and businesses alike
across a range of platforms and devices. WhatsApp Messenger is a messaging application that is
used by people around the world and is available on a range of mobile platforms. Its Oculus virtual
reality technology and content platform offers products that allow people to enter an interactive
environment to play games, consume content and connect with others.

The Company competes with Google.

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 SNAPCHAT

Snap Inc., incorporated on May 24, 2012, is a camera company. The Company’s flagship product,
Snapchat, is a camera application that helps people to communicate through short videos and
images known as a Snap. The Company provides Camera, Friends Page, Discover, Snap Map,
Memories and Spectacles. Snapchat opens directly into the Camera, helping in creating a Snap and
sending it to friends. It offers a range of creative tools that enables people to personalize and add
content to their Snaps. Its chat services include creating and watching stories, chatting with groups,
making voice and video calls, and communicating through a range of stickers and Bitmojis.
Memories enable users to create Snaps and stories from their saved snaps, as well as their camera
roll. Snap Map allow users to share their location, view nearby friends and stories. It also offers
Spectacles, its sunglasses that make Snap. The Company’s advertising products include Snap Ads
and Sponsored Creative Tools, such as Sponsored Lenses and Sponsored Geofilters. As of
December 31, 2017, on an average, 187 million people used Snapchat every day to Snap with
family, watch Stories from friends, see events from around the world, and explore curated content
from publishers.

The Company is engaged in advertising business. The Company’s customers can create Snaps
using Sponsored Creative Tools, such as Sponsored Lenses and Sponsored Geofilters. The
Company’s Snap advertisements are vertical full screen video advertisements in the Snap format.
Sponsored Lenses uses augmented reality platform to create visually engaging three-dimensional
(3D) experiences. Sponsored Geofilters help users to create and send contextual Snaps with their
friends. It offers a range of third party and in-house solutions to measure advertising effectiveness.
The Company works with partners to verify that an advertisement was in fact delivered to a given
user. The Company works with third parties to measure the reach and frequency of a campaign,
and the demographics of the users that viewed the campaign. The Company works with partners
to measure statistical lifts in advertisement recall, brand favorability, and purchase intent. The
Company offers several solutions to measure things, such as sales lift, in-store visitation, and
application installations.

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 The Company competes with Google, LLC, Apple, Inc., Facebook, Inc., Twitter, Inc., Kakao
Corporation, Line Corporation, Naver Corporation and Tencent Holdings Limited.

Here's a snapshot of Snap Inc. that won't disappear in a few seconds. The Snapchat phone app
burst on the social media scene by allowing users to take photos and videos, attach messages, and
send them to other users. The twist: The messages disappeared in a few seconds, unless the receiver
captured them. Subsequent features allowed users to enhance their images, including stylized
representations of their locations, and offered the capability to string their chats together into a
story of their day. Snap, Snapchat's parent, makes money by selling access to its users -- an average
of about 160 million a day -- to advertisers. Snap went public in early 2017.

Operations

Snap serves two constituencies. There are the tens of millions of users who send photos and
messages across Snapchat every day, and then there are the advertisers who pay Snap to reach
those users. All of Snap's revenue comes from advertisers.

For users, there's Snapchat, the company's flagship product. It captures what the company calls
'Snaps,' which are photos and videos. Snapchat provides several tools for adding special effects to
Snaps; they include Lenses, Geofilters, and Bitmojis. Its Chat Service Storytelling Platform allows
users to collect Snaps and play them in chronological order. They are automatically deleted in 24
hours. The platform can be used by individual users, communities of users, and publishers. The
Memories tool allows users to save their Snaps in personal collections. A messaging function also
comes with a 24-hour limit on the messages.

Snapchat enables a good degree of privacy for its users. Accounts are private by default and users
are required to manually approve each other as friends before they can communicate.

Another user product is Spectacles, sunglasses equipped with a camera that automatically uploads
images to the user's Snapchat account. The company contracts with a third-party manufacturer to
make the glasses. Snap also offers users the ability to transfer money to each other through
Snapcash, which is run on software from a third party.

Snap offers advertisers’ similar tools, built on the same foundation as the user tools, for engaging
users. Under the Sponsored Creative Tools umbrella are tools like Sponsored Lenses and

22
 Sponsored Geofilters. Another advertising tool is Snap Ads with Attachments. Snap Ads are
vertical full screen video advertisements in the Snap format.

The company also offers a Stories tool for publishers. With the tool, called Discover, publishers
attach long-form content to each Snap in their Story. Publishers using the tool include Vogue,
NBC, BuzzFeed, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times.

Snap has multiyear contracts to run its products and services on Google Cloud and Amazon Web
Services. The company is to pay Google about $2 billion over the course of their contract and pay
$1 billion to AWS. The AWS contract assures redundancy for Snap operations.

Geographic Reach

Snap is based in Los Angeles and has other offices in the US and around the world. US advertisers
generate about 90% of its revenue. As for users, more than 40% of daily active users are in North
America (the US, Canada, and Mexico), about a third are in Europe, and the rest are scattered
throughout the world.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Snap bought Bitstrips Inc., a web and mobile application that allows users to create a personal
avatar, in 2016. In 2015 Snap acquired Looksery Inc., a mobile video communication company
that creates lenses for use within applications.

Competitors

• Apple Inc.

• Facebook, Inc.

• Google LLC

• Loon, LLC

• Twitter, Inc.

23
 TWITTER
Twitter, Inc. (Twitter), incorporated on April 19, 2007, offers products and services for users,
advertisers, developers and data partners. The Company's products and services include Twitter,
Periscope, Promoted Tweets, Promoted Accounts and Promoted Trends.

The Company's Twitter is a platform for public self-expression and conversation in real time.
Twitter allows people to consume, create, distribute and discover content and has democratized
content creation and distribution. Periscope is a mobile application that lets anyone broadcast and
watch video live with others. Periscope broadcasts can also be viewed through Twitter and on
desktop or mobile Web browser. The Company's Promoted Products enable its advertisers to
promote their brands, products and services, amplify their visibility and reach, and extend the
conversation around their advertising campaigns. The Company enables its advertisers to target an
audience based on a range of factors, including a user's Interest Graph. The Interest Graph maps,
among other things, interests based on users followed and actions taken on its platform, such as
Tweets created and engagement with Tweets.

The Company's Promoted Tweets appear within a user's timeline or search results just like an
ordinary Tweet regardless of device. Using its algorithm and understanding of each user's Interest
Graph, it can deliver Promoted Tweets that are intended to be relevant to a particular user.
Promoted Accounts appear in the same format and place as accounts suggested by its Who to
Follow recommendation engine, or in some cases, in Tweets in a user's timeline. Promoted Trends
appear at the top of the list of trending topics for an entire day in a particular country or on a global
basis. When a user clicks on a Promoted Trend, search results for that trend are shown in a timeline
and a Promoted Tweet created by its advertisers is displayed to the user at the top of those search
results. Advertisers can also run short video advertisements either before (also known as pre-roll
advertisements) or during (also known as mid-roll advertisements) video content, such as its live
National Football League (NFL) games, live election debate coverage or clips from a range of
interest categories.

The Company's technology platform and information database enable it to provide targeting
capabilities based on audience attributes, such as geography, interests, keyword, television
conversation, content, event and devices that make it possible for advertisers to promote their

24
 brands, products and services, amplify their visibility and reach, and complement and extend the
conversation around their advertising campaigns. Its platform also allows customers to advertise
across the mobile ecosystem, both on Twitter's owned and operated properties, as well as off
Twitter on third-party publishers' Websites, applications and other offerings, across the user
lifecycle from acquiring new users to engaging existing users.

The Company's MoPub is a mobile-focused advertising exchange, which combines advertisement

serving, advertising network mediation and a real-time bidding exchange into a monetization
platform. Twitter Audience Platform is an advertising offering that enables advertisers to extend
their advertising campaigns with Twitter Promoted Products to audiences off Twitter while
retaining access to Twitter's measurement, targeting and creative tools. The Company provides a
set of tools, public application programing interfaces (APIs) and embeddable widgets that
developers can use to contribute their content to its platform, syndicate and distribute Twitter
content across their properties. It offers subscription access to its public data feed for partners
wishing to access data beyond its public API, which offers a limited amount of its public data. Its
data products and services offer data sets to allow developers and businesses to utilize its public
content to derive business insights and build products using the content that is shared on Twitter.

The Company competes with Facebook, Google, Snap, Microsoft, Yahoo, Kakao, Line,
DoubleClick Ad Exchange and AOL.

Operations

Twitter generates more than 85% of its revenue from the sale of advertising (mostly from mobile
advertising), with the remaining 15% coming from data licensing arrangements.

The company's advertising revenue comes from three streams: promoted tweets, promoted
accounts, and promoted trends. Most advertising is sold on a pay-for performance basis, which
means advertisers are only charged when a user engages with their ad.

The data licensing business may be the company's secret sauce however, as marketers and even
investors clamor for data they can analyze for insight into news events and trends. The company's
data products and services offer sophisticated data sets and data enrichments that give developers

25
 and businesses deeper insight into the public content posted on Twitter. Twitter also offers
subscription access to public data feed for partners who wish to access data beyond the public API,
which offers a limited amount of public data for free.

The company's Periscope is a mobile application that lets anyone broadcast and watch video live
with others. MoPub is a mobile-focused advertising exchange, which combines ad serving, ad
network mediation and a real-time bidding exchange into one comprehensive monetization
platform. The Twitter Audience Platform is an advertising offering that enables advertisers to
extend their advertising campaigns with Twitter Promoted Products to audiences off Twitter while
retaining access to Twitter's measurement, targeting, and creative tools.

For developers, the company provides a set of tools, public APIs, and embeddable widgets that
can be used to contribute their content to Twitter, as well as distribute Twitter content across their
properties.

Geographic Reach

Twitter's headquarters is in San Francisco, California. The US is the company's largest market,
accounting for more than 60% of revenue, while Japan supplies about 15%. The other some 30%
is from other international markets.

Competitors

• Altaba Inc.

• Facebook, Inc.

• Google LLC

• LinkedIn Corporation

• Loon, LLC

• Oath, Inc.

26
 INSTAGRAM
Instagram is a social network that has taken the world by storm with huge growth over the past
few years.

Originally established as a photography app in October 2010, the site now has more than 700
million monthly active users. Facebook bought the app in 2012, and new features are released
regularly to keep in line with competitor social networks such as Snapchat.

Instagram is a hugely visual platform, allowing users to upload inspirational images and videos.
Many brands and businesses use Instagram to share product and inside company photos and to
build relationships with potential customers and influencers.

Business accounts

Business accounts on Instagram offer the opportunity for companies to pay for their content to
appear in the newsfeed of their ideal audience.

Business Instagram is a social network that has taken the world by storm with huge growth over
the past few years.

Originally established as a photography app in October 2010, the site now has more than 700
million monthly active users. Facebook bought the app in 2012, and new features are released
regularly to keep in line with competitor social networks such as Snapchat.

Instagram is a hugely visual platform, allowing users to upload inspirational images and videos.
Many brands and businesses use Instagram to share product and inside company photos and to
build relationships with potential customers and influencers.

Business accounts offer basic analytical data on how content is performing. Business profiles also
have a contact button and a linkable location tag. You'll need to make sure your Facebook page is
connected to your Instagram account to get a business profile.

Inspiring your customers using Instagram

27
 What makes Instagram unique is the vast range of filters and editing tools available to users to
make images look good and stand out. This is the social network's USP and what has made it so
popular. The social network rewards creativity and experimentation; attractive, unusual and quirky
images may attract more interest than straightforward and predictable ones.

Instagram users scroll through photo and video content from other users in the main newsfeed, so
it's important to stand out. Remember that Instagram is a creative, visual medium. Try to do
something out of the ordinary with your photos, while still bringing some benefit to your company.
For instance, you could show teaser photos of a new product, taken from an unusual angle.

Instagram strategy

It's tempting to post images of anything and everything, but Instagram will work better if there are
some themes running through your posts. For instance, you could focus on photos relating to your
products being used in the real world.

Some brands use similar filters, colors or perspectives for their Instagram content, so that the
images look consistent. This is visually appealing to users and can help to attract more followers.

It is recommended that you use a specific strategy for your Instagram account and avoid posting
exactly the same content as your other social media networks.

Growing your Instagram presence

To have a real impact on Instagram, you need to do more than just post images and videos.
Following people in your niche or industry is a good idea, particularly if they are regularly posting
about similar interests.

For instance, if you run a café, you might start following people who use Instagram to document
their love of coffee. You should engage with other Instagram users, commenting on their
contributions and replying to people who comment on yours.

Hashtags are a must for anyone wanting to grow their followers. Unlike other platforms where
hashtag overuse can look unattractive, Instagram allows users to tag their content with up to 30
hashtags. The majority of users now place these hashtags in the comments underneath their images,
to avoid distracting customers from reading their captions.

28
 Performing regular hashtag research is recommended to understand what people within your niche
are using. You can always find out how many times a hashtag has been used by simply searching
for it in Instagram.

1.4 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

 To explore the consumer usage objectives of various social media platforms in Delhi NCR
 To analyze time spent by users daily on various social media platforms under study.
 To study consumer usage of different features available on social media platforms.
 To study the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the usage of social media among various
age groups of people.

1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study is confined towards exploring the Consumer Usage patterns for social media
platforms among people of different age groups in different parts of Delhi and Delhi NCR. The
study is confined to Consumer usage of these specified platforms and how do they choose to use
it since it is one of the biggest parts of our daily lives nowadays. The study also explores the impact
of covid-19 pandemic and lockdown on the usage of social media. The limitations of the study are
the time constraints and money constraints. Future studies should replicate our survey with
individuals from diverse demographic groups.

29
 Chapter 2:

Review of Literature

30
 Saleem Alhabash and Mengyan Ma (2017)

Facebook. Facebook is the most popular SNS. Per the company’s website, “Facebook’s mission
is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected” (Facebook,
2016). Facebook allows people to connect with friends, family members, and acquaintances and
gives people the opportunity to post and share content such as photos and status updates (Stec,
2015). Founded in 2004, the platform has over a billion active daily users and over 1.65 billion
monthly active users, with a majority of users accessing it via mobile devices (Facebook, 2016).
About three quarters of Internet users report having a Facebook account, and 7 in 10 users report
accessing the site daily, highlighting the habitual and ritualized nature of Facebook use (Duggan,
2015b). The majority of young adults (18–29 years old) report using Facebook (87%), yet this age
group experienced a 5% drop in usage rates from 2013 to 2015, however, there was no significant
change in Facebook usage rates among Internet adult users (Duggan, 2015a; Duggan, Ellison,
Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, 2015).

Twitter. Founded in 2006, Twitter has been categorized as a microblogging site, where users
interact in “real time” using 1140-character tweets to their followers. Users can converse using
mentions, replies, and hashtags (Stec, 2015). Despite reports indicating declining popularity and
importance of Twitter amid diminishing investment (Fiegerman, 2016; Tsukayama, 2016),
Duggan (2015b) reports no major changes in the percentage of Internet adult users who have active
Twitter accounts. One-third of online young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 years reported
using Twitter in 2013, compared to 37% who used it in 2014 and 32% in 2015 (Duggan, 2015a;
Duggan et al., 2015). Over the past few years, data about the number of Twitter users have faced
critique over credibility, as Twitter overestimates the number of users by including accounts that
have not been active for long periods of time (Bennett, 2011). Nonetheless, recently Twitter
released that it has 320 million active users with 1 billion unique monthly visits to sites from
embedded tweets (Twitter, 2016).

Instagram: Instagram is a photo-sharing mobile application that allows users to take pictures, apply
filters to them, and share them on the platform itself, as well as other platforms like Facebook and
Twitter (Stec, 2015). Per the company’s website, Instagram has over 400 million active monthly
users who shared over 40 billion pictures, with an average of 3.5 billion daily likes for >80 million
photos shared daily on the site (Instagram, 2016). More than half of young adults (18–29 years

31
 old) report using Instagram, thus making them the largest group of Instagram users (Duggan,
2015a; Duggan et al., 2015).

Snapchat. is a social media mobile application that lets users send and receive time-sensitive
photos and videos, which expire upon viewing (Stec, 2015). The number of Snapchat users has
grown significantly in recent years because of its recordability and modality affordances. The
recordability affordance allows users to post photos, videos, and text messages that disappear after
24 hours. Regarding Snapchat’s modality affordance feature, users communicate with others
through photographs and video clips (up to 10 s long), while also adding filters to their photos and
videos (Waddell, 2016).

Specific to Snapchat—which has also been recently adopted by Instagram—is the ability for
individuals to select the audience viewing their content. Users can post their photo or video snaps
to their own stories, public stories, or privately send them to other users (much like direct
messaging on Facebook and Twitter). Recent estimates show that there are over 100 million
Snapchat users worldwide (Piwek&Joinson, 2016). With roughly a quarter of young adults (18–
29 years old) using Snapchat, this platform was rated as the third-most popular social media
platform after Facebook and Instagram (Duggan, 2013; Utz, Muscanell, & Khalid, 2015).

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are the four leading social media platforms. Per
Lenhart (2015), young adults or millennials are the heaviest social media adopters and users. They
are born and have grown up with pervasive information communication technologies (ICTs) and
do not know life without them; something that has become a defining common characteristic of
this generational group (Cotten, McCullough, & Adams, 2011; Palfrey & Gasser, 2008).

Millennials use social media for a variety of reasons, including communication with friends and
family members, information seeking, and social relationship maintenance, among others (Ito et
al., 2008; Ling, 2008; Palfrey & Gasser, 2008).

More recently, scholarly research has drawn upon UGT to examine audiences’ goal- directed
consumption behavior in the computer-mediated communication context e.g., Gil de Zuniga et al.,
2012; Papacharissi and Mendelson, 2011; Raacke and Bonds

32
 Raacke, 2008; Sundar and Limperos, 2013).

In particular, two trends of SNS use have been identified: first, the majority of people use two or
more SNSs simultaneously because each has its unique features and purposes (Brandtzaeg, 2012);
and second, people increasingly embrace SNSs as tools for both communication and information,
which help them fulfill their informational, emotional, and social desires when used in tandem
(Quan-Haase and Young, 2010). Additionally, SNS users, particularly teenagers and young adults
(collectively known as “millennials”), are accessing multiple SNSs through their smartphones and
mobile devices (Cho, 2015; Salehan and Negahban, 2013), connecting to multiple networks, and
tapping into multiple social resources at any point in time.

Joe Phua, Seunga Venus Jin, Jihoon Jay Kim (2012)

More recently, scholarly research has drawn upon UGT to examine audiences’ goal- directed
consumption behavior in the computer-mediated communication context (e.g., Gil de Zuniga et
al., 2012; Papacharissi and Mendelson, 2011; Raacke and BondsRaacke, 2008; Sundar and
Limperos, 2013). In particular, two trends of SNS use have been identified: first, the majority of
people use two or more SNSs simultaneously because each has its unique features and purposes
(Brandtzaeg, 2012); and second, people increasingly embrace SNSs as tools for both
communication and information, which help them fulfill their informational, emotional, and social
desires when used in tandem (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010). Additionally, SNS users,
particularly teenagers and young adults (collectively known as “millennials”), are accessing
multiple SNSs through their smartphones and mobile devices (Cho, 2015; Salehan and Negahban,
2013), connecting to multiple networks, and tapping into multiple social resources at any point in
time. More recently, scholarly research has drawn upon UGT to examine audiences’ goaldirected
consumption behavior in the computer-mediated communication context (e.g., Gil de Zuniga et
al., 2012; Papacharissi and Mendelson, 2011; Raacke and BondsRaacke, 2008; Sundar and
Limperos, 2013). In particular, two trends of SNS use have been identified: first, the majority of
people use two or more SNSs simultaneously because each has its unique features and purposes
(Brandtzaeg, 2012); and second, people increasingly embrace SNSs as tools for both

33
 communication and information, which help them fulfill their informational, emotional, and social
desires when used in tandem (Quan-Haase and Young, 2010). Additionally, SNS users,
particularly teenagers and young adults (collectively known as “millennials”), are accessing
multiple SNSs through their smartphones and mobile devices (Cho, 2015; Salehan and Negahban,
2013), connecting to multiple networks, and tapping into multiple social resources at any point in
time.

To date, numerous researchers have analyzed motives for using SNSs applying the UGT
framework. For instance, Krause et al. (2014) found that entertainment, communication, and
habitual diversion were three main motivations of using Facebook. Orchard et al. (2014) found
that motivations for SNS use included information exchange, conformity, freedom of expression,
social maintenance, and recreation, with the strongest predictor being making new connections.
Park et al. (2009) found four primary needs (socializing, entertainment, self-status seeking, and
information) fulfilled from participating in Facebook groups. Hunt et al. (2012) also found that
interpersonal communication, self-expression, and entertainment motives are most predictive of
frequent Facebook use. Quan-Haase and Johnson (2010) also identified six gratifications (passing
time, showing affection, following fashion, sharing problems, demonstrating sociability, and
improving social knowledge) derived from Facebook use. Due to the different design and usability
features of Facebook compared to other popular SNSs like Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat,
frequent users of each SNS may differ significantly on motives for using, and gratifications derived
from, each of these four SNSs. In turn, each SNS may differ on attendant bridging and bonding
social capital outcomes for frequent users, which rationalizes applying UGT to the current
research. To date, numerous researchers have analyzed motives for using SNSs applying the UGT
framework. For instance, Krause et al. (2014) found that entertainment, communication, and
habitual diversion were three main motivations of using Facebook. Orchard et al. (2014) found
that motivations for SNS use included information exchange, conformity, freedom of expression,
social maintenance, and recreation, , with the strongest predictor being making new connections.
Park et al. (2009) found four primary needs (socializing, entertainment, self-status seeking, and
information) fulfilled from participating in Facebook groups. Hunt et al. (2012) also found that
interpersonal communication, self-expression, and entertainment motives are most predictive of
frequent Facebook use. Quan-Haase and Johnson (2010) also identified six gratifications (passing
time, showing affection, following fashion, sharing problems, demonstrating sociability, and

34
 improving social knowledge) derived from Facebook use. Due to the different design and usability
features of Facebook compared to other popular SNSs like Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat,
frequent users of each SNS may differ significantly on motives for using, and gratifications derived
from, each of these four SNSs. In turn, each SNS may differ on attendant bridging and bonding
social capital outcomes for frequent users, which rationalizes applying UGT to the current
research.

Online privacy concerns refer to SNS users’ desire to keep their personal information from misuse,
and have been found to be significantly related to individuals’ decisions to start and continue SNS
use (Taddicken, 2014). Introversion is a person’s preference for spending time alone rather than
in large groups (McCroskey et al., 2001). Previous studies have found SNS use helping introverts
to increase their online social capital (Zywica and Danowski, 2008). Attention to social
comparison refers to one’s sensitivity to others’ reactions with regards to his or her own behavior
(Lennox and Wolfe, 1984), and has been found to significantly impact peer influence on SNSs
(Chan and Prendergast, 2007; Mandel et al., 2006). Based on this, it was hypothesized that SNS
intensity, trust, tie strength, homophily, privacy concerns, introversion, and attention to social
comparison, would moderate between SNS use and social capital

Lukasz Piwek, Adam Joinson (2015)

Snapchat's rapidly increasing popularity among young age groups rises a number of questions
about how users utilize IM services with time-limited and self-destructing content, and how this
relates to the use of other popular SNS such as Facebook. The current study is amongst the first
that investigate a detail patterns of Snapchat use by surveying the very last incidence of snap that
participants send and receive. The study also examines the relationship between intensity of
Snapchat use and social capital. Results indicate that Snapchat is mainly used as a playful mobile
IM service to rapidly communicate and share content, especially selfies, with a small group of
close friends, partners and family. Such “strong ties” oriented use is further reflected by a strong
association between Snapchat intensity of use and bonding, rather than bridging, of social capital.
It seems that popularity and patterns of Snapchat use highlighted in our study might be a sign of a
new form of digital narrative rising amongst younger population of social media user’s narrative

35
 that is achieved by seamless and playful use of smartphones to capture and share content-rich
moments that cease to exist a second later. Our study highlights how Snapchat become effortlessly
embedded within its user’s daily communication practices and is currently the most popular form
of IM in par with SMS and Facebook Communicator. Although our study shows that privacy risk
for Snapchat users are less profound than indicated in the popular media, parents and educational
institutions should be aware of risk associated with such services. Due to selfie-oriented use of
Snapchat that pose a potential risk of unintended disclosure of sensitive personal content, parents
of the youngest users should be especially aware of Snapchat use. However, the fact that Snapchat
offers such playful form of communication could be also utilised by educational institutions as a
new mean of engagement. In addition to helping young students’ populations, the use of Snapchat
could support variety of other populations, including community members, and others who benefit
from maintained ties. However, more research is needed to fully understand how ubiquitous and
disruptive such use of self-destructing messaging is in the cultural and socio-psychological context
of the digital media use.

36
 Chapter 3:

Research Methodology

37
 3.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

This study is aimed at finding out the usage of various social media platforms among consumers
of different age group and analyzing the patterns and habits with respect to time spent, purpose of
use and frequency of usage.

3.2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

 To explore the consumer usage objectives of various social media platforms in Delhi NCR
using Cross-sectional study.
 To analyze and compare the time spent by users daily on various social media platforms
under study using various graphs and charts.
 To study consumer usage of different features available on social media platforms using
excel tools like smart charts and frequency tables.
 To study the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the usage of social media among various
age groups of people using descriptive statistics.

3.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

The focus of the study lies over to find the consumer usage of various social media platforms and
how has it been affected due to Covid-19 pandemic. The following is our major plan for the study;

1. Primary Data is required to make the study a unique one.

2. The population being sampled is friends, family, relatives & acquaintances.
3. The collection of data has been done using questionnaires made using google forms.

Sample size for the study will be 95. It would be a cross sectional research as it is conducted at
one point of time across different consumers of society. Graphs and tables would be used to

38
 evaluate the results of the study and would further the impact of Covid-19 on the usage of social
media would be evaluated using regression analysis.

3.4 RESEARCH DESIGN

A Research Design is a methodical, well-organized procedure utilized by a researcher, or a

scientist to carry out a scientific study. It is a comprehensive co-existence of already identified
elements and any other information or data leading to a reasonable end result.
The research design is required to follow a pre-planned, well-thought-out methodology, in
agreement with the pre-selected research type, in order to come up with an error-free, authentic
conclusion. Research designs are categorized broadly into two categories exploratory research
design and conclusive research design. Conclusive research design is further divided into
descriptive and causal/ experimental research design. The suitability of a research design for a
specific research depends on nature of the problem, method of data collection and analysis. The
project has been done using Descriptive Research Design as variables of the study already exist
and only needed to be observed:

Descriptive research design:

In a descriptive design, a researcher is solely interested in describing the situation or case under
their research study. It is a theory-based design method which is created by gathering, analyzing,
and presenting collected data. This allows a researcher to provide insights into the why and how
of research. Descriptive design helps others better understand the need for the research. Descriptive
research is “aimed at casting light on current issues or problems through a process of data
collection that enables them to describe the situation more completely than was possible without
employing this method.” In its popular format, descriptive research is used to describe
characteristics and/or behaviour of sample population.

Cross sectional research:

A cross-sectional study involves looking at data from a population at one specific point in time.
The participants in this type of study are selected based on particular variables of interest. This
type of research can be used to describe characteristics that exist in a community, but not to

39
 determine cause-and-effect relationships between different variables. This method is often used to
make inferences about possible relationships or to gather preliminary data to support further
research and experimentation. This type of research is frequently used to determine the prevailing
characteristics in a population at a certain point in time.

3.5 DATA COLLECTION

There are two types of data – primary and secondary. Primary data is a type of data which never
existed before; hence it was not previously published. For our study we have also collected primary
data through questionnaires circulated to family, teachers, relatives & peers.

This part of research describes the specifics of gathering the data. There are many methods for
collecting data- in some cases it will already be recorded (secondary data) and in other cases such
as our project, researcher needs to construct a test, survey or other instrument to obtain information
(Primary data). “Out of the available techniques of data collection questionnaire method has been
used to collect the data for conducting the research on the study of factors influencing online
shopping and buying behavior of consumers.”

Data collection was done by performing a survey through Google Forms.

• Approximately 200 people were sent the link to fill the survey.

• 115 responses were recorded.

• 85 members of the population didn’t use any one of the social networking platforms so didn’t
respond.

• 20 responses from the population were removed due to skewed responses in the filter question.

• 95 responses from the population were used to analyze the data.

SAMPLE SIZE = 95

40
 Sampling Strategy

In order to address the research, the participants were selected using a non-probability sampling
method. There are many different types of non-probability sampling methods; two types of
sampling method are sufficiently used in this research; snowball sampling and purposive sampling.
Snowball sampling is used when it is difficult to identify members of the desired population. This
kind of sampling starts with small group of people who are appropriate with the research topic and
these small group identify further members and then they identify further members and so the
sample snowballs. However, the problem with snowball sample is that it is very unlikely that the
sample will represent the whole population. it is because respondents are most likely to reach
respondents who are similar to themselves. Therefore, purposive sampling method is also used in
this survey. Purposive sampling provides us to use our judgement to select cases that will enable
us to meet the objectives.

41
 Chapter 4:
Data Analysis and
Interpretation

42
 Q3. Under which age category do you fall?

DATA COLLECTED:

PATICULAR DATA

UPTO 20 54

21-25 32

26-30 5

31—50 4

INTERPRETATION:

PATICULARS FREQUENCY PERCENTAGE

UPTO 20 54 57%

21-25 32 34%

26-30 5 5%

31--50 4 4%

AGE

43
 The respondents were from all age groups with the majority ageing up to 20 that was 57%. Whereas
34% of the data was of 21-25 age groups. And 5% and 4% were 26-30 and 31-50 age groups. This
shows that social networking sites are more used by the children of this generation.

Q4. What is your Gender ?

DATA COLLECTED:

GENDER DATA
Male 36
Female 59

INTERPRETATION:

More than 50% of the population of respondents were Female, i.e. 59 whereas only 36 respondents
were males.

44
 Q5. Which all Social Media Platforms do you use ?

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
FACEBOOK 72
INSTAGRAM 84
TWITTER 61
SNAPCHAT 24

INTERPRETATION:

It was a multiple-choice question to find out how many people use multiple platforms. It was
observed that the majority population uses Instagram and Facebook. Twitter is not that famous and
Snapchat ranks 3rd.

45
 Q6. What other social media platforms do you use apart from the above mentioned platforms and
why?

INTERPRATATION:

This question was an open ended question in order to gain insight regarding the other platforms
the respondents use apart from the above mentioned platforms. The three most noticeable as well
as widely used are LinkedIn, Telegram and Clubhouse.

A lot of responses pointed towards the use of LinkedIn on a wide scale by a lot of respondents.
LinkedIn is the world's largest professional networking website. You can use it to build
connections in your industry and to stay in touch with colleagues, past and present. It's an
invaluable tool for job searches and recruitment, and a great way to stay up to date with industry
news, enhance your professional reputation, and increase the visibility of your brand.

Telegram is also another rising platforms that has seen an increased Consumer base. Here, users
can share photos, videos, audio as part of their messages, it is highly authentic messaging app and
you will not lose a large amount of data until you upload or download bigger files, chatting requires
only bytes of data, and personalization of telegram is very nice provides by backgrounds and
sounds.

Another platform which has gained popularity in the market since April 2020 especially because
it was developed during the times of pandemic. Clubhouse is an audio-based social media app
which allows people everywhere to talk, tell stories, develop ideas, deepen friendships, and meet
interesting new people around the world. You can jump in and out of different chats, on different
subjects, in something akin to a live, free-flowing podcast. You can simply listen or choose to
throw in your thoughts.

46
 Q7. How many times a day do you use Social Media Platforms?

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
Not everyday 2
Once a Day 2
2-5 times a day 26
5-10 times a day 37
Above 10 times a day 28

INTERPRETATION:

This question was aimed at finding out how frequently a user opens their specific social media
accounts for whatever reason. It was observed that most people are frequently visiting their social
media accounts daily.

47
 Q8. At what times are you most active on Social Media?

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
2AM - 5AM 7
5AM - 7AM 0
7AM - 9AM 8
9AM - 11AM 7
11AM - 1PM 20
1PM – 3PM 14
3PM – 5PM 14
5PM – 7PM 29
7PM – 9PM 36
9PM – 11PM 49
11PM – 2PM 34

INTERPRETATION:

PARTICULAR I II III IV V VI
2AM - 5AM 7
7
5AM - 7AM 0 15
8
7AM - 9AM 8 15
15
9AM - 11AM 7 35
27
11AM - 1PM 20 41
34
1PM – 3PM 14 48
28
3PM – 5PM 14 57
43
5PM – 7PM 29 79
65
7PM – 9PM 36 114
85
9PM – 11PM 49 119
83
11PM – 2PM 34

48
 This question was aimed to find out at what time intervals do people focus on social media
platforms by finding modal class using grouping method. It was observed that a majority of people
use social media platforms at night time specially between 9PM and 11PM.

Q9. How much time do you spend on a specific social media platform?

DATA COLLECTED

TIME FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM SNAPCHAT TWITTER

DURATION
0-5 MIN 49 12 37 77
5-10 MIN 26 8 18 10
10-20 MIN 10 28 18 5
20-30 MIN 7 20 13 3
30-60 MIN 2 14 5 0
ABOVE 60 1 13 4 0
MIN

AVERAGE 10 15 10 5

49
 INTERPRETATION:

The next 4 questions were focused on finding out time spent by users on specific media platforms.
People who do not use the platform filled 0-5 minutes of time spent on the specific social media
platform. Firstly, we have a graph of all the platforms combined then separate graphs for a better
understanding.

Most people either just spent very less time on Facebook or are there for 5-10 minutes.

50
 Snapchat also was used for 0-5 minutes by a majority of people.

Instagram provided a better more well spread data with people using it majorly for 10-30 minutes
a day.

51
 Twitter is not that commonly used and provides a data with most people opting for 0-5 minutes.

Q10. Do you feel that lockdown due to Covid-19 has increased the general use of Social Media?

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
Yes 53
No 17
Maybe 25

52
 INTERPRATATION:

56% of the respondents feel that the advent of pandemic due to Covid-19 has increased their
daily usage of social media as compared to the pre-lockdown period. 26% of the consumers feel
that their daily usage of social media might have increased due to several reasons and the
lockdown could be one of the several reason whereas 18% of the respondents feel that lockdown
hasn’t affected their usage patterns.

Q11. What do you use Social media majorly for ?

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
Posting Pictures 9
Status Update 5
General Browsing 48
Latest News, Gossips & Rumours 25
Birthday Reminders 35

53
 Keeping in touch with Contacts 15
Stories 1
Meme Contents 24
Connecting with Strangers 2
Do not use Facebook 15
Not Using Currently 1
Others 1

INTERPRETATION:

Consumers generally prefer using social media for general browsing during their free times of the
day. Followed by this, they like to spend their time on social media to scroll through different
memes that can add humor to their day. They also browse for general updates on birthdays, latest
news world-wide regarding different events as well as the rumours and gossips. As noticed, the
use of social media is more towards a casual behaviour and less towards a learning and gaining
knowledge about major things that can directly impact the society.

54
 Q12.On a scale 1 to 5, is there a positive or a negative impact of Covid-19 on the content shown
on social media platforms? (1 being positive and 5 being negative)

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
1 8
2 12
3 17
4 28
5 30

INTERPRATATION:

Majority of people feel that Covid-19 has adversely affected the social media environment.
There has been a more negative impact on the content that is shown on social media which can
affect the mental and in turn can also influence their usability of these platforms. The next
question aims at gaining information as to how differently did the respondents use social media
during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

55
 Q13. Do you check your Social Media Platforms before going to bed?

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
YES 84
NO 11

INTERPRETATION:

Majority of the respondent, i.e. 84 respondents, said YES they check their social media platforms
before going to bed whereas only 11 respondents said NO they don’t check their social media
platforms before going to bed.

The questions main objective was to confirm the timings submitted by people and also to find how
addicted they are to social media when combining this question with the next one.

56
 Q14. Do you consider yourself addicted to Social Media Platforms?

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
Yes 24
No 37
Maybe 34

INTERPRETATION:

This question aimed at people’s response to their own perception about them being addicted to
social media. So majority of the respondent No they are not addicted to Social media platform
which are 37 respondents. While 34 respondents said MAYBE as they are not sure if they are
addicted to social media or not. But only 24 respondents confessed that YES they were addicted
to Social Media Platforms.

57
 Q15. Would you prefer a single unified platform for everything?

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
Yes 40
No 37
Maybe 18

INTERPRATATION:

This was a filter question also aimed at finding out if people would like their features of choice at
a single platform rather than 4 different platforms. So majority of the respondents were in the favor
of a unified platform for everything, i.e. 40 respondents. While 37 respondents were not in the
favor of a unified platform but only 18 respondents were confused whether there should be a
unified platform for everything.

58
 Q16. If you wish for a unified platform, which social media would you like to have as the base?

DATA COLLECTED:

PARTICULAR DATA
Snapchat 2
Instagram 34
Facebook 7
An entirely new Platform 15
I don’t wish for a unified platforms 37

INTERPRATATION:

This was a filter question also focusing on people’s choice of base for social media platform if
there were to be a single unified platform. Most of the respondents didn’t prefer having a uniform
platform however, in case of preference, Instagram is the preferred platform.

59
 Q17. In your view, how has the Covid-19 Pandemic changed the Social Media Environment?

INTERPRATATION:

It was an open ended question in order to know the perception of the respondents regarding the
changes in the Social Media due to Covid-19 pandemic. The responses showed both affirmative
and negative views. Some respondents feel that pandemic gave individuals as well as firms an
opportunity to enhance their Social and Digital skills as well as a global reach. Social media has
given people a platform to showcase their talent and reach out to their followers and customers
over a large scale. Moreover, those who wished to upgrade their skill set have got an opportunity
to hone their skills using different platforms and reaching out to different people who are ready to
impart knowledge to other people. Also, during the times of need people were able to reach their
friends in order to gather resources in times of need.

On the other hand, there has been a negative impact of Covid-19 on social media as well. A lot of
negative news was prevalent regarding the lives being lost, a lot of political ruckus, fake medicines,
false information and news which was creating a negative influencing on the minds of people. This
also led to people taking break from social media and deactivating their accounts for a detox.

60
 Chapter 5:
Findings and
Recommendations

61
 Upon analysis of the data of the respondents it was found out that a huge population uses social
media nowadays. Despite the fact that young adults are the heaviest adopters and users of social
media and social networking platforms, our results cannot be generalized to the entire population
of social media users.

We received varied responses from everyone based on their preferences of social media platforms.
The project was focused on finding the usage objectives for various social media platforms in the
Delhi NCR region. It was also planned to study the time spent by users on various social media
platforms and to realise the preferred features on specific social media platforms for users.

FINDINGS

• Majority users are youngsters between the age group of 15-25.

• Instagram is the highest used social media platform. Facebook is very closely 2nd.
• People spend the least time on Twitter and Snapchat comparatively.

• Apart from the 4 major platforms, the other three noticeable platforms used are LinkedIn,
Telegram and Clubhouse.

• Users visit their preferred social media platform more often than once daily and at least
10 times a day on an average.
• Later at night was the peak time for most social media platforms specially between 9pm -
11pm.
• Majority people feel that Covid-19 has led to an increase in the usage of social media,
especially because of the lockdown.
• Mostly, respondents use social media platforms for general browsing and meme contents.
Birthdays, events and gossips are secondary priorities.
• The impact of Covid-19 has more of a negative impact on social media than a positive one.
• Most people access social media platforms as the last thing they do before going to bed.
• 37 of 95 accepted about being addicted to social media.
• 40 of 95 wanted a new platform apart from the 4 as a unified platform and they prefer
Instagram to be that.

62
 • Covid-19 has had a both positive and negative impact on the social media environment.
Some are beneficial for consumers while some have a negative influence on them.

SUGGESTIONS

• Considering that the majority of our population using social media platforms is youngsters
we should focus on a platform that is more adult focused to increase usage.
• Facebook enjoyed the first position of social media platforms for a long time before being
replaced by Instagram as the new trending social media platform so Facebook should try
getting that edge back by introducing new features.
• Most people prefer browsing through their social media platforms at night and do so as the
last thing they do before sleeping. This is good as long as people are not losing sleep.
• Twitter is the least used social media platform out of the 4 under study. People nowadays
prefer meme content and not informative. Twitter is more informative and difficult use
considering all upload restraints and word limits. Hence it should work on the same to
increase its consumer base.
• Snapchat is doing well and is the new uprising social media platform and could soon take
Facebook and Instagram by storm.
• Upcoming platforms like LinkedIn, Telegram and Clubhouse are like to build a customer
base due to their beneficial features and extensive use in the market.
• A lot of people said they are addicted to social media. This is not a good thing. Social
media platforms have been created to connect to acquaintances and keep in touch with
loved ones. Not to spend hours on the platforms causing health and other issues.
• Considering people use different platforms for their distinguishing features and most
people want a unified platform for the 4 social media platforms someone should work on
unifying the most loved features into a single app to place a huge consumer base altogether.
• Covid-19 has had both negative and positive impact on the consumers. It’s better to look
at the positive side and not let anything negative have an influence on the minds of the
consumers.

63
 CHAPTER 6:
Conclusions

64
 Social media is a really convenient way to communicate with a network of people nowadays. We
can use it to know about our friends and keep in touch with friends that belong to different
countries. Not only does social media help you communicate it also allows you to advertise
products at a large scale for a small cost. Social media has changed our life so much. If we are
aware enough and vigilant enough about our use of social media and are not addicted to it then
social media could be a huge benefit to all of us.

After carefully observing all our data and the existing literature on the topic it can be easily said
that the current generation is highly addicted to social media with majority people using more than
1 social media platforms and spending hours of weeks just browsing through it. Facebook may
still have the highest number of active users but people nowadays prefer Instagram over Facebook.
Twitter is the social media platform that is highly disregarded by the generation of millennials but
is the most official media platform out of the 4. Snapchat ranked 3rd in the used frequency of
social media platforms.

Opening social media account is not what it used to be earlier. With the technological age taking
over the world by storm opening social media accounts every few hours for whatever reason it
may be is the new trend. Most people nowadays visit their social media platforms approximately
every few hours now even in the smallest spare time they might have.

Our study also found that most people are highly active at social media platforms at night, majorly
after 9 pm upto 2 pm. This is a health risk as people might be losing up on precious sleep time
which is required by most of the current population nowadays. It is also indicative that people are
losing out on family time which is being spent on social media platforms.

The project focused on finding out individual time spent by users on social media platforms as
well. The most time spent was shared closely amongst Snapchat and Instagram. Facebook came
close to 3rd and twitter was the least used and time spent platforms amongst the 4 social media
platforms.

The study also found the comfort of people in posting content themselves on social media
platforms which displayed that people usually posted at least once or twice a month.

65
 The study also explored what features were most liked by people on all 4 social media platforms
and also tried to find if people wished to have a single unified platform for all their favored features
and if so, which platform would they like as the base.

The study also implored the respondent to introspect about their social media addiction which gave
the results as positive showcasing that people are social media addicts.

The study also illustrates that during the 2020 global pandemic, social media has become an ally
but also a potential threat. It provides a new platform to people with a large number of audience to
encourage their potential, reach out to people, network with them, find appropriate jobs.
Simultaneously, High volumes of information compressed into a short period can result in
overwhelmed HCPs trying to discern fact from noise. A major limitation of social media currently
is the ability to quickly disseminate false information which can confuse and distract. Society relies
on educated scientists and physicians to be leaders in delivering fact-based information to the
public.

66
 CHAPTER 7:
References

67
 References

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Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat Among College Students?, Journal Sage
Publication, January-March 2017: 1–13
• Barabási, A.-L. Scale-Free Networks: A Decade and Beyond. Science 2009, 325, 412–413.
• Barker, V. (2012). A Generational Comparison of Social Networking Site Use: The
Influence of Age and Social Identity, INT’L. J. AGING AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT,
Vol. 74(2) 163-187.
• Bar-Yam, Y. Complexity Rising: From Human Beings to Human Civilization, a
Complexity Profile. Available online: https://necsi.edu/complexity-rising-from-human-
beings-to-human-civilization-a-complexity-profile (accessed on 25 February 2020).
• ChristophRiedl , Felix Köbler , SuparnaGoswami& Helmut Krcmar (2013) Tweeting to
Feel Connected: A Model for Social Connectedness in Online Social Networks,
International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 29:10, 670-687
• Computers in Human Behavior 2017.02.041
• Golder, S.A.; Macy, M.W. Diurnal and seasonal mood vary with work, sleep, and
daylength across diverse cultures. Science 2011, 333, 1878–1881.
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2005, 19, 33–50. [CrossRef] 4. Hidalgo, C.A.; Klinger, B.; Barabási, A.-L.; Hausmann, R.
The Product Space Conditions the Development of Nations. Science 2007, 317, 482–487.
• https://about.instagram.com/
• https://about.twitter.com/
• https://scholar.google.com/
• https://www.Emerald Insight.com/
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• Joe Phua, Seunga Venus Jin, Jihoon Jay Kim, Uses and Gratifications of

68
 • Phua J, Venus Jin S, Jay Kim J (2017), Uses and Gratifications of Social Networking Sites
for Bridging and Bonding Social Capital: A Comparison of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
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358-367
• Social Networking Sites for Bridging and Bonding Social Capital: A Comparison of
Facebook
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501–506.

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 CHAPTER 8:
Annexures

70
 Questionnaire

“ANALYSING CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS USAGE

OF SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS”

1. Name *

Your answer

2. Email ID *

Your answer

3. Under which age category do you fall? *

a) Upto 20
b) 21-25
c) 26-30
d) 31-50
e) 50 and above

4. Gender *

a) Male
b) Female

5. Which of the following Social Media Platforms do you use? *

a) Facebook
b) Snapchat
c) Instagram
d) Twitter

71
 6. What other social media platforms do you use apart from the above mentioned platforms and
why?

7. How many times a day do you use Social Media Platforms? *

a) Not everyday
b) Once a day
c) 2-5 times a day
d) Above 10 times a day

8. At what times are you most active on Social Media Platforms? *

a) 7am-11 am
b) 11am- 3pm
c) 3pm-7pm
d) 7pm-11pm
e) 11pm-3am
f) 3am-7am

9. How much time do you spend per day on an average on the specific social media platform? *

0-5 min 5-10 min 10-20 min 20-30 min 30-60 min Above 60 min
Facebook
Instagram
Snapchat
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Snapchat
Twitter

72
 9. How often do you post on Social Media Platforms? *

a) Never
b) Daily
c) Weekly
d) Monthly
e) Every few weeks
f) Every few months
g) Multiple times a day

10. Do you feel that lockdown due to Covid-19 has increased the general use of Social Media?

Choose

11. What do you use Facebook majorly for? *

a) Posting Pictures
b) Status Update
c) General Browsing
d) Latest news, gossips & rumours
e) Birthday Reminders
f) Keeping in touch with contacts
g) Stories
h) Meme Content
i) Connecting with strangers
j) Do not use Facebook
k) Other:

73
 12.On a scale 1 to 5, is there a positive or a negative impact of Covid-19 on the content shown on
social media platforms? (1 being positive and 5 being negative)

13. Do you check Social Media Platforms before going to bed? *

Choose

14. Do you consider yourself addicted to Social Media Platforms? *

Choose

15. Would you prefer a single unified platform for everything? *

Choose

16. If you wish for a unified platform, which social media would you like to have as the base? *

a) Facebook
b) Instagram
c) Snapchat
d) Twitter
e) An entirely new platform
f) I don't wish for a unified platform

17. In your view, how has the Covid-19 Pandemic changed the Social Media Environment?

74