Take a moment to reflect on yourself ten years ago. You most likely wouldn’t recognise yourself, not in terms of appearance, preferences, or even values and priorities. If a decade can change a person, imagine what it can do to technology, which moves and shifts lightyears faster than any human being.
Simon Kemp, CEO and founder of strategic marketing and consultancy firm Kepois, has recently published a decade-long study that informs those working with the Internet and other tech services about the future of digital.
Global Internet Use Is Increasing
According to his article, as the global population has grown, so has Internet usage. In 2011, the world’s population was approximately 6.8 billion people. By the end of 2021, that figure had risen to an estimated 7.9 billion.
Previously, only 30% of the global population actively used the Internet, and it was considered a non-essential service. Today, six out of ten people (or nearly one million new Internet users per day) from all over the world are online for a variety of reasons, making it difficult to believe that there was a time when living offline for one’s entire life was possible.
When we dig deeper into these numbers, we discover that Asia is home to more than half of the world’s population, which supports findings that people in the region are also the most frequent Internet users. Working Asian adults, in particular, were found to spend an estimated six hours and 19 minutes per day online—just 39 minutes less than the global average. Another way to look at it is that these people are using the Internet 12 times more than they were 10 years ago, making them a prime target audience that online advertisers and businesses cannot afford to overlook.
Southeast Asian Users’ Digital Demographics
When it comes to who is using the Internet the most these days, another study conducted by Kemp on Southeast Asian youth suggests that young adults continue to reign supreme. This group includes not only millennials but also Gen Z-ers in their twenties and thirties.
It is estimated that these individuals spend more than 10 hours per day online in a week. You can probably guess where you’ll find them online—on social media, of course. According to statistics, they spend about a quarter of their waking lives on social media platforms and are active on seven or eight of them on average. Facebook (and Facebook Messenger), Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube remain the leaders, with TikTok, WhatsApp, and Telegram trailing. Furthermore, it was discovered that women use social media far more than men.
“The key takeaway here is to make sure you don’t rely too heavily on media headlines to inform your social media strategy,” Kemp says, adding that in-depth research into specific market segments is still the best way to go when determining how to maximise digital marketing initiatives.
He offers a few pointers for brands hoping to capitalise on this new information:
- When focusing on brands with a Southeast Asian audience, such as Filipino consumers, it is best to target young people. Priority is given to those between the ages of 16 and 24.
- Customers of this generation are digital natives. They have high expectations for the ease with which they can navigate brands’ online platforms, find the information they require, and make a purchase. Invest in improving the overall user experience to meet this need.
- Despite the fact that this age group uses multiple social media platforms at the same time, brands do not need to be visible everywhere. Instead, brands should determine which platform performs best for them and focus on increasing their presence there.
- It’s critical to tailor content to where these young people are in their lives right now. It’s the most effective way to elicit emotional responses in them, allowing them to identify with what you’re selling and choosing you over competitors who may not have had the same personal impact on them.
Overall, Facebook remains the most popular social media platform among Internet users. Facebook receives 2.9 billion visitors in a single month, compared to one billion visitors reported by competitors. Brands, on the other hand, can certainly explore other platforms. After all, Southeast Asia is home to 55% of the world’s social media users, so there are a variety of unique entry points for brands to consider.
Kemp writes that Southeast Asia “currently has about 8.5 percent of the world’s total population and just under 10 percent of its Internet users, but it already has 12.7 percent of the world’s social media users.”
Capturing the Filipino Market
These are things to keep in mind when catering to Southeast Asian customers in general, but they can also guide brands looking specifically at Filipino consumers.
The Philippines was named the world’s SMS capital in the early 2000s. Ten years later, the country’s population surpassed all others as the world’s most active social media users, with 70 million active social media users, or “85 percent of the eligible population,” according to Kemp.
Filipinos spend approximately 11 hours per day on social media, contributing to the 65 days per year they spend using their preferred social media platform. This is good news for brands with an online presence because it was discovered that advertisers who advertise across multiple platforms can target a whopping 90 million distinct social media users. Use these figures to consider how much social media is integrated into Filipinos’ regular Internet usage. In 2011, only 28% of Filipinos used social media, but by the end of 2021, that figure had risen to 95%. Without a doubt, the time has come for brands to beef up their online presence.
Nonetheless, despite these impressive advancements, there is still a digital divide. Perhaps the gap has only grown wider as more privileged Internet users have used technology to improve their lives, while those who have never had access to online services are falling further and further behind. More importantly, now that the Internet has become an inseparable part of modern life, new issues must be addressed. Kemp, as well as Hootsuite’s Global Overview Report of digital trends for 2022, highlight the following as some of the most pressing:
- Internet speed is still an issue not only for casual online browsing, but also for business, education, healthcare, and information dissemination. According to the Speedtest Global Index, which recorded global Internet speeds as of January 2022, the UAE has the best mobile Mbps at 135.63 Mbps, while Yemen has only 0.53 Mbps. Monaco has the fastest broadband speeds at 192.86 Mpbs, while Afghanistan has the slowest at 1.62 Mpbs. The Philippines has a population of 17.95 million people and a population density of 49.52 million people per square kilometre.
- The GSMA has identified a particularly vulnerable population: older women in rural communities are less likely to explore and use the Internet as a tool to improve their lives—or even be aware of what the Internet is in its entirety. Despite the fact that this study was limited to women in India, it serves as a springboard for Filipino market researchers and brands to discover who in the country may require the most digital assistance.
- Internet users today have grown accustomed to a global web dominated by a few technological behemoths. In the coming decade, and in a process that has already begun, brands will pave the way for a much less decentralised online experience—one in which Internet users will have more freedom and flexibility to search for information, shop, and meet their other needs without being restricted to only a few spaces. This addresses Internet monopoly concerns and makes the digital world more user-friendly.
- Finally, brands with an online presence no longer have the option of providing customer service. Being able to transcend virtual interactions with customers and make them feel cared for rather than just faceless points of purchase is a non-negotiable and core competitive advantage. Customer service is essential for developing long-term customer relationships that result in brand loyalty and multiple purchases.
To improve the future Internet experience for everyone, brands must do two things: create quality products and services and know where and to whom they can be sold, but also help ensure that access to them is equitable. They are not only on the Internet to make a sale, but also to help as many people as possible enjoy the wonderful things that the digital world has to offer.