Singapore – Southeast Asians are more active on social media than their global counterparts, and are now the world’s most active gamers, according to a report by creative agency We Are Social and social and media intelligence firm Meltwater.
According to the report, social media users in Southeast Asia are all above the global average in terms of usage rate, and that the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam took all three of the top spots in the latest rankings for percentage of internet users playing video games worldwide.
Going further into detail, this above average rate of social media use in Southeast Asia encompasses countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, with users in the Philippines notably spending 3 hours and 30 minutes each day on social media – an extra 1 hour and 10 minutes above the global average.
With the TikTok app, Southeast Asians surpass the global average time spent on TikTok which is 31 hours and 47 minutes, as Indonesia clocks in with 38h 24m, followed by Malaysia (38h 7m), Thailand (37h 18m), the Philippines (36h 49m), Vietnam (36h 16m), and Singapore (32h 59m).
Gaming is also very popular within the region, with Filipinos taking the top spot as 96.5% are seen as active gamers, followed by Indonesians (95.3%) and the Vietnamese (94.7%).
This prominence of usage in the area also extends to viewing video content as 97.4% of internet users in the Philippines watch TV via streaming services – above the global average of 92.7% and the second highest globally. Similarly, the nation tops watching music videos online (72.9%) and vlogs (49.9%).
Other notable areas where Southeast Asians record higher than average is YouTube, wherein Thailand spends the second most time globally using YouTube’s app with 42 hours and 49 minutes each month, and podcasts, with nearly twice as many Indonesians (40.2%) listening to podcasts each week compared with their global counterparts.
The report also found out that Gen Z are the biggest users of search engines and email, as more than 83% of the demographic used a search engine in the past month, which is higher than any other age group. Young women, who are the biggest users of TikTok, are actually the most prolific users of search engines.
Lastly, despite assumptions about the generation, data shows that Gen Z is also the biggest users of email with around three-quarters using email each month.
