The Importance of Social Networks for E-commerce: An Analysis of Young Users’ Perspectives in the European Union

Social networks are currently one of the most important means of disseminating information, as almost every Internet user has a social media account. Some users use social media not only for communication but also for purchasing goods and services. The primary goal of the study is to assess the use of social networks by younger users in individual countries of the European Union, focusing on gender characteristics and age. Secondly, the study points out the importance of social networks for e-commerce. The analyses hereunder used secondary data from the Eurostat database for all countries of the European Union for the period between 2013 and 2021. The study focused on internet use and the use of social networks (creating user profiles, sending messages, and posting posts on Facebook, Twitter, etc.). These variables indicate the proportion (in percentage) of the population participating in social networks in the last three months. The analysis of differences was carried out using non-parametric tests—Wilcoxon W test and Kruskal–Wallis H test. K-medoid clustering using the Manhattan distance was also employed. The results indicated differences between individual countries in the intensity of participation on social networks, with France showing the most significant deviation (lowest participation). It was also found that participation is higher among women than among men, and younger generations of users offer higher participation rates than older ones. The obtained results can be useful for better understanding the behavior of different genders and age groups on social networks. Businesses can use these findings to create targeted social media campaigns for specific age or gender groups.