Did we really need a survey for this?
Facebook is still the most popular social networking site in India, while WhatsApp leads the list of instant messaging applications. According to a study called Connected Life conducted by a global research firm, TNS, 51% of internet users in India use Facebook, while 56% use WhatsApp. The study was conducted on the digital attitudes and behaviors of 60,500 internet users across 50 countries.
The study also shows that Facebook is still the world’s most popular social networking platform in the world. Nearly 30% of global internet users say that they use it everyday. Facebook’s popularity in the Asia Pacific region (APAC) is a lot more. Facebook usage in countries like Thailand, Taiwan, and Hong Kong is 78%, 75%, and 72% respectively. The study also showed that India is the second-largest base, with 125 million Facebook users out of a total of 1.49 billion. The Unted States has the most number of Facebook users in the country.
TNS India Executive Director, Parijat Chakraborty, said, “The social networking market of India is Facebook centric, which is fuelling the adoption of Facebook Messenger also as the IM platform for private messaging. However, WhatsApp is by far the most popular IM platform in India.”
According to the study, nearly 61% of internet users in APAC use instant messaging everyday. 82% of users said that they use it weekly. 77% of internet users in Malaysia and 73% in Hong Kong said that they use an instant messaging platform daily. Western markets are way behind by comparison – 29% of users in the UK and 35% in the US said that they use an instant messaging platform daily. Only 38% of internet users in India said that they used instant messaging daily. The report said, “the popularity of IM has soared over the past year, with a 12 per cent uplift in daily usage globally as more people opt for closed messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat.”
TNS also said that while the popularity of instant messaging was on the rise, traditional social platforms are still holding their ground as they allow content to go viral faster. They added that the challenge for brands is to create content that consumers want to share.
Source: PTI
Follow Us
Shrey Pacheco
Writer, gamer, and hater of public transport. View Full Profile
