People around the world using the internet continued to rise, with 4.021 billion netizens of the 7.593 billion global population in January 2018.
Of the people using the internet, 3.196 billion are active social media users, figures from the report titled “Digital Around the World in 2018” conducted by We Are Social and Hootsuite shows.
The two online organizations completed the study in collaboration with their data partners such as GlobalWebIndex, GSMA Intelligence, Statista, Locowise, and SimilarWeb.
In relation with this, the study also reveals that unique social media users reached 5.135 billion while active mobile social users topped 2.958 billion.
For the Global Annual Digital Growth, internet users rose over 7 percent; active social media users, more than 13 percent; unique mobile users, plus 4 percent; and active social mobile social users at over 14 percent. All figures were reckoned since 2017. The study was made in January 2018.
We Are Social noted that while the number of people using the internet has risen, so thus the amount of time that netizens spend on the internet, citing GlobalWebIndex data.
The data shows the “average internet user now spends around six hours each day using internet-powered devices and services — that’s roughly one-third of their waking lives.”
“If we add this together for all 4 billion of the world’s internet users, we’ll spend a staggering 1 billion years (underscoring by We Are Social) online in 2018,” it said.
Another finding in the Digital 2018, reveals that over two-thirds of the population of the world now are toting a mobile phone, majority of with a smartphone.
The report also reveals that for those accessing the internet, those using smartphones are at the top at 52 percent year-on-year choice.
For laptops and desktops, the figure of their users is at 43 percent (minus 3 percent year-on-year change; tablet devices, 4 percent year-on-year, minus 13 percent; and other devices, 0.14 percent, year-on-year at plus 17 percent.
Filipinos still longest user of social media
We are Social and Hootsuite’s study also reveals that the Philippines, for the third successive year, has kept its spot on the apex of the digital Mount Everest as far as the length of time on social media is concerned.
Filipinos spend the longest time on social media, indicating an average user in the Philippines stay connected almost four hours on social day in and day out.
But the Brazilians are catching up, the study reveals.
Meanwhile and maybe expected, Facebook is as as dominant, showing that Mark Zuckeberg’s global cyber community has “total users up 15 percent year-on-year to reach almost 2.17 billion at the start of 2018.
On Digital 2018, here are the figures for six Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Internet user population and length of internet use a day:
Indonesia — 132.7 million users and 8 hours and 51 minutes; Philippines — 67 million users, 9 hours and 29 minutes; Vietnam — 64 million, 6 hours and 52 minutes; Thailand — 57 million, 9 hours and 38 minutes; Malaysia — 25.8 million and 8 hours and 27 minutes; and, Singapore — 4.83 million and 7 hours and 9 minutes.
(All images are from the report of We Are Social and Hootsuite.) (EKU)