A Digital Snapshot in May 2020: Some Positive News To Cheer Us Marketers Up!
I spent quite a while digesting the wonderful Digital Trends report from WeAreSocial. Simon Kemp’s mega-analysis is over 7,000 words and so I thought I’d distil it into a top 20 key snapshots that should bring cheer and joy to those working in digital across the globe. And if not joy at least some useful information to share with clients and colleagues alike. So without further ado what did I learn and find interesting about this latest report? And how has the COVID19 pandemic impacted digital business so far in 2020?
Usage of the internet, mobile, video and gaming
1. 4.57 billion people now use the internet, an increase of more than 7 percent since this time last year.
2. Social media users are growing even faster, up by more than 8 percent since April 2019 to reach 3.81 billion today.
3. Video calling could be the future of social media as Zoom revealed it’s 200 million daily active users in recent weeks — 20 times more than pre-pandemic levels.
4. GSMA Intelligence reported 5.16 billion unique mobile users at the start of April 2020, meaning that roughly two-thirds of the world’s total population uses a mobile phone today
5. Twitter saw the biggest quarterly jump amongst social platforms. Advertisers can now reach 47 million more people on Twitter compared to January 2020, equating to a quarter-on-quarter increase of 14 percent.
Impact of Covid19
6. Digital consumption of media has changed massively due to COVID19 as per my earlier blog. One in five internet users say they expect to continue watching more content on streaming services, and one in seven (15 per cent) say they expect to continue spending more time using social media. Great news for Netflix, Disney + and the like.
7. Almost half of internet users (47 percent) in surveyed countries say they’ve been spending longer using social media, while roughly half of these users (23 percent) say they’ve been spending “significantly” more time using social media compared to their pre-lockdown behaviours.
8. AT&T reports that gaming-related traffic in April 2020 was 50 percent higher than pre-lockdown levels
9. Global WebIndex’s survey reported that half of internet users aged 25 to 44 in the 17 countries say they have been spending more time shopping online in recent weeks, with men in particular saying that they’ve increased the amount of time they’re spending on eCommerce activities
10. ContentSquare reported a 251 percent increase in visits to supermarket websites in the seven days from April 8th to April 15th, compared to average weekly traffic at the start of 2020. The company also reported a 76 percent rise in transactions on supermarket websites during the same period, compared to pre-lockdown levels.
11. Alexa’s latest ranking of the world’s top websites, which shows that eCommerce websites currently account for 6 out of the top 20 places. Interestingly, 5 of these are Chinese eCommerce sites, with Alibaba’s Tmall accounting for two distinct domains in the top 10.
Facebook Advertising
12. Advertisers can now reach more than 2 billion people on Facebook — reaching more than one-third of the entire population ages 13 and above.
13. Advertisers can now reach 280 million people on Facebook in India, up by 20 million since January this year. The platforms’ US audience also grew by 10 million over the past three months, reaching a total addressable audience of 190 million people
14. Overall, women are significantly more likely to click or tap on Facebook adverts compared to men, while people between the ages of 35 and 65 also show greater propensity to engage with commercial messages on the platform.
15. Younger users are the least likely to interact with ads, with Facebook’s own data showing that users aged 18 to 24 click or tap on a median of just 10 adverts per month, compared to an overall median of 13 ad clicks per month across the platform’s total user base.
Digital Trends 2020
16. The latest data from GlobalWebIndex show that mobile’s share of total internet time increased again in Q4 2019, and mobile devices now account for more than 51 percent of our connected lives.
17. Despite a persistent myth that Millennials and Gen Z don’t use email, the latest data from GlobalWebIndex shows that email use remains consistently high across all age groups. Critically, roughly three-quarters of internet users between the ages of 16 and 24 say they used a webmail service to read or send emails in the past month.
18. The use of voice interfaces continues to grow, especially on mobile devices. 45 percent of internet users now say they use voice search and voice commands each month, compared to the 43 percent that we reported in January. Furthermore, voice interface use now extends to more than half of internet users in India, China, Indonesia, Mexico, and Turkey.
19. Concerns about misuse of data continue to rise around the world. 65 percent of internet users between the ages of 16 and 64 surveyed by GlobalWebIndex say they worry about how companies use their personal data. For ways to combat this read my blog on using security and privacy-conscious browser Brave here.
20. Younger users are the biggest users of ad-blocking tools, although men are considerably more likely to use these tools than women. With the economic impact of lockdown hitting many companies and sectors hard, advertising budgets may take months to recover.
So there you have it — a short snapshot of what has been happening in the world of digital, mobile and social this year. I hope you found it useful. As always, feel free to comment on what you’ve read, how are you finding it out there this year? What do you agree with? How has business changed for you? Take care and stay healthy!
