Are you among the people spending more time on their phones, social media , and the internet during the COVID-19 lockdown? Then you're in the majority, according to a new report.
Social media management platform Hootsuite ( Vancouver), in collaboration with the agency We Are Social (London) and the marketing agency Kepios (Singapore), published the Digital 2020 Global Statshot report for April 2020.
The survey involved users from 17 countries. Users were approached in March 2020 and asked to answer questions about changes in their behavior during quarantine.
The report emphasizes changing online habits as the pandemic has confined most people to their homes.
The researchers used data from various sources to have a reliable comparison between countries.
“Digital usage” increased significantly between April 2019 and April 2020. Although the total population only increased by 1.1% (82 million), the number of mobile phone users increased by 2.5% (128 million). Internet users increased by 7.1% (301 million) and active social media users increased by 8.7% (304 million).
There are now 4.20 billion users worldwide who access the internet via mobile phones. As we are confined to our homes, we are spending more time on our mobile phones.
Three in four internet users (76%) reported spending more time on their smartphones. 45% use their laptops more and 22% use their tablets.
So what do we do on the Internet?
Nearly three in five (57%) reported watching more shows and movies on streaming services. Nearly half spend more time on social media (47%) and messaging services.
Additionally, 47% of users reported that they have spent more time online shopping [shopping for food (33%) or household items (29%)].
This resulted in a 251% increase in traffic to sites supermarket in the first six weeks of 2020. In contrast, there was a 71% decrease to tourism sites.
One in three (39%) reported more use of music streaming services, more use of mobile apps (36%) and more video games (35%).
Users also indicated that they would like to watch specific programs.
Nearly half of users (47% women and 50% men) wanted more movies, and nearly a third (35% women and 30% men) wanted reruns of popular classic TV shows. Only 11% of users wanted more updates from bloggers and vloggers.
Also, many people are searching for COVID-19 (18 out of 20 searches were about COVID-19 and its evolution).
Finally, there was an increase in the use of video conferencing applications.
However, once the quarantine, our online behavior will change again. Researchers have found that there will be a decrease in the use of technologies.
Only one in ten (10%) plan to continue spending a lot of time on mobile apps and video games
Internet and social media activity will continue to increase, but at lower rates than now.
