Facebook is back, and Kenya’s internet habits have quietly confirmed it. After spending years being written off as the platform your aunt forwards blurry videos on, Meta’s flagship product has overtaken TikTok to become the country’s second most visited online platform in 2025.
According to traffic data from Cloudflare, Google still sits comfortably at number one, but Facebook has climbed past TikTok, which dominated Kenyan screens in 2024 and has now slipped dramatically to eighth place. Instagram and WhatsApp have also surged, overtaking Microsoft and YouTube in overall usage.
The revival is not accidental. Facebook has leaned hard into short form video, pushing Reels to the centre of the experience and abandoning its old friends and family focused feed in favour of algorithmic discovery.
Users are now served a steady stream of vertical videos from accounts they have never followed, mimicking the mechanics that once made TikTok irresistible.
For Kenyan users, the shift appears to have worked. Reels has become a primary consumption format, keeping people scrolling longer and engaging more often.
Cloudflare data also shows Snapchat now outperforming X, formerly Twitter, which has dropped out of Kenya’s top ten social platforms altogether, a fall that says as much about shifting tastes as it does about X’s ongoing identity crisis.
Beyond social media, generative AI platforms are also gaining ground. ChatGPT, QuillBot and GitHub Copilot are now among the most used tools in Kenya. Notably, ChatGPT has ranked as the fifth most popular search engine in the country for the first time, signalling a growing comfort with AI driven information sources.
The broader context matters. Mobile devices account for 52 percent of Kenya’s web traffic, with Android dominating at 92 percent, though Apple’s iOS is slowly gaining ground. Analysts say Facebook’s resurgence mirrors a global trend as platforms chase attention through short videos and algorithmic feeds, particularly among younger users.
For brands, influencers and media houses, the message is blunt. Kenyan audiences have moved again. Facebook noticed. Others are now scrambling to catch up.
