Pinoys spend more than 4 hours on social media daily

FILIPINOS spend more than four hours everyday on social media — the highest among 29 countries surveyed, according to an Internet trends report by social media management platform Hootsuite and United Kingdom-based consultancy We Are Social Ltd.

The Digital in 2017 report released on Tuesday showed Filipinos spent an average of four hours and 17 minutes daily on social media sites such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter, ranking first among 29 economies using GlobalWebIndex’s third and fourth quarter data on a survey of Internet users aged 16-64.

The Philippines was followed by Brazil, where users averaged three hours and 43 minutes on social media, and Argentina and Mexico with three hours and 32 minutes. In the United Arab Emirates, users spent three hours and 24 minutes daily on social media, while Malaysians spent three hours and 19 minutes.

The Japanese spent the least time on social media with only 40 minutes, the only country that averaged less than an hour of daily social media usage.

The popularity of social media in the Philippines contrasts with its slow Internet connection speed.

The latest Akamai report showed the Philippines ranked second to the last among AsiaPacific economies, recording a 4.2 megabits per second (Mbps) average connection speed in the July to August period. This was only higher than India’s 4.1 Mbps — the slowest among the 15 economies measured in the region. Globally, South Korea recorded the fastest average connection speed with 26.3 Mbps.

In India, users spent two hours and 36 minutes on social media. On the other hand, South Korea had the third lowest average time spent on social media with only an hour and 11 minutes.

KEEPING IN TOUCH

PLDT, Inc. Public Affairs Head Ramon R. Isberto said the ranking could be related to the Filipino culture of wanting to always “keep in touch.”

“It’s the same cultural dynamic that made us the text messaging capital of the world. Filipinos like to keep in touch,” Mr. Isberto said.

The Philippines has a social media penetration rate of 58%, higher than the average of 47% in Southeast Asia, the Hootsuite report showed.

In the Philippines, social media users grew by over 25%, adding 12 million users since January 2016. China added the most social media users year on year with 133.87 million, followed by India with 55 million.

The use of mobile as a platform for social media has rapidly grown in the country. According to the Hootsuite report, mobile social media penetration in the Philippines was already at 52%, up 32% or 13 million since January 2016.

United Arab Emirates had the highest mobile social media penetration rate at 88%, while Nigeria had the lowest penetration rate at 8%.

The Hootsuite report also showed that Internet usage was on the rise globally. Internet users worldwide grew by 10%, adding 354 million more people since January 2016 to reach 3.773 billion — representing 50% of the world’s population.

Globally, active social media users rose by 21% or 482 million to 2.789 billion, representing a 37% penetration rate. Mobile penetration reached 66% or 4.91 billion. Active mobile social media users were also up 30%, adding 581 million people to reach 2.54 billion.

In Asia Pacific, there were 1.909 billion Internet users, which grew 46% from a year ago. Social media users in the region jumped 36% to 1.514 billion, while active mobile social users rose 35% to 1.441 billion.

“Half of the world’s population is now online, which is a testament to the speed with which digital connectivity is helping to improve people’s lives. The increase in Internet users in developing economies is particularly encouraging,” Simon Kemp, a global consultant at We Are Social, was quoted as saying in a statement.

The report compiles data from the world’s largest studies of online behavior, conducted by organizations including GlobalWebIndex, GSMA Intelligence, Statista and Akamai in “a comprehensive state” of social media reference.