2021 – It’s 5G and Mobile All the Way

The latest edition of my digital marketing bible has arrived, courtesy of Simon Kemp and the Hootsuite, We Are Social Teams, you can read the entire report here but in the meantime, here are my key takeaways for MENA and beyond. 

 It’s All About Mobility

More than 85% of the world’s population over the age of 13 uses a mobile device to access the internet. App Annie data shows Android users spend more than 4 hours a day on their phones. Mobile devices are outpacing traditional TV, with the average American spending more than four hours a day on their phone, compared with 3¾ hours watching live TV. App Annie’s State of Mobile 2021 report shows native apps accounting for 92 percent of the time Android users spend on their phones, and GWI reports a typical user now spends 3 hours and 39 minutes a day using the internet on their phone. 

Social Media Usage Rises Exponentially (No Surprise There)

Social media user numbers increased by more than 13 percent over the past year to almost 4.2 billion, with nearly half a billion new users – more than 15 new users every second. We now spend roughly 42 percent of our waking lives online and almost 2.5 hours a day on social media.

 Search Remains The #1 Internet Activity

Search is going social, too - about 45% of global internet users, and more than 50% of Gen Z and young Millennials, say that they primarily use social networks to search for information about products or services:

TikTok – More than Dancing 

Curated TikTok collections and remixes – a concept known as content porting - have made a huge splash on YouTube. In just four years, TikTok has become the fifth most searched term on YouTube, and the eighth-most used app overall.

Faster Internet and the Impact of 5G

5G is the Driving Force

The speed and spread of 5G has enormous implications for digital marketers; higher speed = higher content consumption. Ericsson predicts that 5G adoption will grow from 4% to 10% worldwide. 

 The UAE has the world’s highest average mobile internet speed, followed by South Korea and China. The average mobile connection speed in Australia, the UAE, and KSA is actually faster than broadband. 

 Platform Usage Overlap

Almost all users of any given social media platform use at least one other platform. In the UAE, the average user has the second-highest number of social media accounts in the world at just over 10.

However, brands do not need to be active on every single platform; it is clear from the data that an active presence on one or two of the larger platforms is enough to reach almost all of the world’s social media users. 

Reasons for Using Social Media

It is crucial to understand why users turn to social media to create a successful digital campaign. 

Geographical Factors

Don’t fall victim to Localised Tunnel Vision. The US accounts for only 7% of the world’s internet users, so it’s essential to take into account differences in local markets - for example, Yahoo! remains one of the top destinations in Japan.

E-Commerce adoption

Interestingly, baby boomers were only slightly less likely to use e-Commerce than Gen Z and Millennials. The data were particularly striking for female internet users aged 55 to 64, who were more likely to shop online than male users aged 16 to 24. 

The major difference between generations is that Gen Z and Millennials are far more likely to use smartphones to make their online purchases.

What are people buying?

For the first time, Tourism and Travel were not the highest spend e-commerce category. This sharp decrease in that category was replaced by a huge increase in food and personal care spending as people turned to spoil themselves at home. 

Top Social and Video Streaming Apps

Less time spent socializing in person equals more time spent online and on apps. Unsurprisingly, YouTube continues to dominate in video streaming with an average of 23 hours watched per month, over three times as many as Netflix and six times more than Amazon Prime.

Conclusions 

• TikTok dominated the platform wars in 2020 and looks likely to continue its momentum through platform porting. 
• 5G technology is driving an increasingly rapid transition to mobile from desktop, with the emphasis on video and streaming.
• Match audience and content to platforms but don’t worry unnecessarily about being on every platform – there’s plenty of overlap. 
• E-commerce has broken through the age barrier but remains generationally split between mobile and desktop.