How Many Images Are On The Internet In 2023?

As the common saying goes, “an image is worth a thousand words,” and there’s undoubtedly some truth.

Think about how many images you took today and how many times you used a social media profile to share what you’re doing. It’s incredible what just a quick shot and a shutter sound can do, right? It’s faster, fancier, and more descriptive. But, tell me, have you ever wondered how many images are on the Internet? Or, do you know that images play a vital role in content marketing?

Let’s find out the answers to these questions and others. Stay with us, as there are many interesting facts and statistics that we will bring to your attention.

How many pictures are on the Internet?

1. Up to three billion images are shared on the Internet daily.

Sources: The Atlantic, DIY Photography

More recent studies from IMGembed and Copytrack report the daily number has reached nearly 3 BN images shared on the Internet a day. On the other hand, from Mary Meeker’s yearly Internet Trends report (2014), at the time, we found out there were 1.8 BN digital images uploaded daily or 657 BN uploaded images a year.

These numbers denote an astonishing rise in everyday image sharing on the Internet in general—a rise of nearly 1.2 BN.

2. The world’s first photo on the internet was uploaded in 1992.

Sources: The Economic Times, Britannica

Tim Berners-Lee published the first picture on the internet (1992). The picture was, in fact, a parody pop band called Les Horribles Cernettes; the same was formed by CERN staff.

Furthermore, when the first photo was uploaded to the internet, Berners-Lee was working for CERN, where the WWW (World Wide Web) was first created.

3. The number of photos taken is expected to reach more than one trillion by 2022.

Sources: Mylio, Rise Above Research

Since people are taking more and more photos, no wonder that the latest data research indicates a significant rise in taken photos for 2022.

According to Rise Above Research, the worldwide amount of photos taken will reach exactly 1.5 trillion in 2022.

Consequently, the ease of the pandemic rules and regulations will result in people going out more frequently, vacationing, and traveling — and the taking of photos is an inevitable part of all those activities. Eventually, this will note a rise of 8 percent in the number of photographs taken for the current year (2022).

4. Images create no less than 300 MB every day.

Sources: GoBrolly, The Washington Post

This is a tricky question as there are many variables, such as

• the size of the picture,
• the Internet speed,
• and the communication/upload method.

However, the general calculation would look like this: 5 photos x 26 MB (an example size) = 130 MB, or around 0.13 GB of data.

According to Verizon calculations, ten uploaded images a day create 300 MB or .29 GB of data a month. Consequently, AT&T’s math of ten social media images created resulted in.14 GB of data a month.

5. A person takes more or less 185 pictures a year.

Source: Mylio

According to Mylio.com, a person takes roughly 185 pictures a year. Of course, this number varies significantly from person to person—some people take more and some less, but 185 is the median number of pictures taken yearly per person.

If we divide this number by the days in a year, we get 0.5 images per person per day. That seems like an insignificant number, but the overall number of pictures taken yearly is over 1.4 T, with 3 bn images taken per day.

6. More than one trillion copyright images are being created every year.

Sources: drumBEAT Marketing, Copyrightlaws

Every image or photo immediately becomes subject to copyrights as a rule of thumb. The person who creates it becomes the owner with official rights to distribute, copy, or display the original.

That being said, over 1 T copyright images are created yearly. However, it’s also possible to license an image to someone else. If someone uses the image without your permission, you can sue them for copyright violation.

7. 20 to 200 KB is considered to be the average image size uploaded on the Internet.

Sources: Squarespace, FloThemes

The average image size uploaded on the Internet is 20-200 KB and between 1500 and 2500 pixels wide.

This is considered the average size because it doesn’t interfere with the loading speed, bouncing rate, and ranking. Since viewers use different devices to access the image, this size ensures there won’t be any user experience issues.

8. JPG/JPEG is the most widely spread image type.

Sources: HubSpot, Creative Bloq

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the most popular image type used for raster images.

Other frequently used image types are

• GIF and PNG.
• For digital photography, the most common types are JPEG, TIFF, and RAW,
  while for vector images, these are EPS, AI, and PDF.
• It’s worth noting that the JPEG image type is a “lossy” format, i.e., the image losses in quality when resized.

9. PNG, with almost 79 percent, is the most popular image format used for websites.

Source: W3Techs

A survey conveyed by W3Techs unveiled the following results on some of the most popular image format usage across websites:

• JPEG (around 74 percent)
• SVG (34 percent)
• GIF (more than 21 percent)

10. The most frequently used resolution among illegally copied images is full-HD (1920 x 1080 pixels).

Source: Copytrack, DIY Photography

Following Copytrack’s data, a full-HD (1920 x 1080) resolution is what you are most likely to encounter among ‘stolen photos,’ i.e., photos that are used illegally.

The second most searched photo resolution among stolen photos is 600 x 400, followed by 800 x 800-pixel resolution.

Social Media

As you may have assumed, a large portion of photos uploaded on the Internet is shared on social media sites, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

11. ‘No filter’ is one of the most striking social media photography trends in 2022.

Source: The Drum

The world of marketing and advertising is in constant motion and evolving. Therefore, it’s critical to stay on top of the newest developments to succeed, principally in digital and social media activities.

Look at some of the top social media photography trends (2022):

• Creation of self-portraits.
• Photos created using film.
• The accent is on inclusivity and diversity.
• Mobile-taken images.

12. More than 340 million photos are being uploaded on Facebook every day.

Source: Omnicore

According to an Omnicore report on Facebook statistics (2021), Facebook users share precisely 350 million photos per day on Facebook profiles, pages, or in groups.

Although Facebook’s popularity may be decreasing, this proves that the platform is still widely used.

13. Over 90 million photos are being posted daily on Instagram.

Source: Omnicore

There are a mind-blowing nearly 1.000 photos uploaded on Instagram every second, which amounts to over 95 million photos added daily. Instagram seems to fall behind Facebook in image upload despite the former being a social network focused almost exclusively on images.

14. Over 182 million daily active Twitter users are sending more than 500 million GIFs daily.

Sources: BusinessofApps, Brandwatch, Omnicore, Internet Live Stats

You probably know that Twitter is used for status updates on current trends and issues. Twitter has an incredible 89 percent more likes and 150 percent more retweets. With more than 182 million daily active users, tweeting over 500 million GIFs a day, Twitter is the trendsetter among the world’s social media sites when it comes to sharing images.

That being said, tweets incorporating images received 18 percent more click-throughs than regular tweets in 2014. This number is even higher today since people like to visualize things now more than before.

15. More than 3.000 images are getting uploaded on Pinterest.

Sources: VentureBeat, eMarketer, Oberlo, Domo

No more, and no less than precisely 3.472 is the number of images uploaded daily on Pinterest. But more curiously, there are as many as 600 million visual searches a month. And Pinterest is the only social media network that has this search option. Furthermore, it is worth noting that among the 200 BN pins on Pinterest, almost 100 percent have an image included (or 99 percent, to be more exact).

And, that’s why searches on Pinterest Lens have increased by 140 percent between 2017 and 2018 – a trend that’s bound to continue.

Miscellaneous

16. More than two billion photos are stolen on a daily basis.

Sources: DPReview, PDN, DIY Photography, Berify

According to the Copytrack Global Infringement Report (2019), 2.5 BN photos are stolen every day. Most of them are in JPEG format and are used for blogs or articles. Whereas 28 percent of stolen images end up in commercial businesses, 11 percent are used by individual professionals.

Nonetheless, should the owners of the stolen photos pursue legal action to protect their rights, the violation damages may exceed $600 BN.

17. AI programs can learn to generate fake photos that are increasingly indistinguishable from genuine ones.

Source: New Scientist

Given enough data, AI programs, called generative adversarial networks, may learn to produce fake pictures that are extremely indistinguishable from original images by setting up two neutral networks against one another.

Two colleagues from the University of California, Berkeley, conveyed a three-group survey. These groups needed to distinguish between 400 fake photos and 400 genuine ones.

Here are the survey’s results:

• The first group acquired 48.2%.
• The second group received excellent accuracy of 59% (a computer-generated face recognition training session was provided to this group).
• The third group considered the fake faces to be 8 percent more trustworthy than real faces. This particular group was asked to evaluate the same faces’ trustworthiness, with a rating of 1 to 7.

18. 500px Prime is listed among the best-selling stock images.

Sources: The Penny Hoarder, Stock Photo Secrets, Shopify

The most popular stock image and photo-selling companies, such as 500px Prime, SmugMug Pro, Shutterstock, iStock Photo, and Etsy, can sell your picture for a hundred dollars or more—Advertising companies buy most of these images. That being said, the average price of a stock photo is from $1 to $15 for a photo.

According to the Photography Trends 2020 report, ‘realness’ was one of the most important factors when choosing which images to purchase. What’s more, the visual content with the highest demand included “intimate and honest takes on classic and popular lifestyle themes.”

19. Doug the Pug, with 3.5+ million Instagram followers, has the most popular image on the internet.

Source: blowing ideas

According to Blowing Ideas research, ‘Doug the Pug Surrounded by a Bunch of Tasty Snacks’ is the most prominent and famous image on the internet. And if you were wondering about the significance of this pug’s popularity, you should know that he has 3.8 million Instagram followers and 2.6 million Twitter followers.

Image Marketing Statistics

20. Over 80% of marketers include images in their campaigns.

Sources: CrowdRiff, HubSpot, Jobs

As most marketers already know, visual content sells the most. For instance, in 3 days, people remember only 10 percent of the information they read or heard. Still, if this information is paired with a picture, the retention goes up to an incredible 65 percent. As a result, 88 percent of marketers use images in their marketing campaigns. Blogging, on the other hand, takes second place with 27 percent.

21. Marketers state over 70% of their published articles are visual content.

Sources: Elite Content Marketer, Venngage

The latest surveys on visual marketing usage point out that above 70% of marketers use primarily visual content in their articles. And the type of visual material that’s primarily used are stock photos, and organic graphics, for that matter.

However, these figures show quite a jump in percentage. Opposed to 2018, when marketers relied on nearly 64% of visual content; therefore, this denotes an increase of roughly more than 10% of visual content being included in the marketing.

22. The AI Image Recognition Market is forecasted to touch its highest CAGR by 2026.

Sources: MarketWatch, Clark Boyd, Mordor Intelligence

According to the most recent data, the AI Image Recognition Market is anticipated to exhibit a robust growth of slightly more than 15% (2020-2027).

Looking back at 2020 reports related to the AI Image recognition market, the value of this particular market was $1695.93 BN.

Conclusion

To sum up. Now you know how many images are on the Internet today. And you are aware of the power of the visual in different aspects, content marketing, among the many.

Whether you like taking photos or not, you’ll probably agree that sharing a photo of your current activities is much easier than toiling over descriptive writing.

Moreover, visual communication is more effective for memory retention than the written word. So, with over 3 BN images shared per day, it’s no surprise that marketing-savvy people exploit the visual+written combo to garner sales for their products and services.