Youth hooked on mobile messaging but preference varies, says Telenor research
(Thomson Reuters ONE) -
Telenor releases Digital Frontrunners study
(Fornebu, 20 June 2016): The Facebook family is strengthening its position
amongst digital frontrunners globally. While most time is spent on messaging
apps, today's young consumers still rate SMS and mobile calls as intrinsic to
their communication habits. And there's a new challenger on the market: watch
out as internet calls gain momentum in Asia.
In a Telenor Research study conducted in November-December 2015, mobile users
aged 16-35 years in Telenor Group's markets in Asia and Europe were interviewed
about their mobile communication habits. The interviewees, identified as
"digital frontrunners", were from Thailand, Malaysia, Pakistan, Norway, Sweden,
Serbia, and Hungary.
The way this group use internet on their mobiles gives good indications on the
future developments of communications services and how the wider demographic in
the respective countries will adopt mobile internet in the years ahead.
"Compared to our previous surveys of digital frontrunners, we observe a general
trend towards increased use of internet based communication on mobiles. However,
the survey shows that the preferences differ from market to market. Traditional
telco services like voice calls and SMS are still an important part of the
communication habits in most of the surveyed countries," said Bjørn Taale
Sandberg, Head of Telenor Research.
Despite not dominating in the time spent on it, traditional mobile calls are
seen as the most important service type in all the countries except Malaysia.
Malaysian and Thai frontrunners most "internetified"
In Malaysia, a major shift has already happened in the communication market,
but Thailand and Serbia seem to be hot on their heels.
Thailand and Malaysia are the most digital of Telenor's surveyed markets;
Malaysians stand out as the most eager users of messaging apps, with the vast
majority (62%) ranking them as the most important communication tool. More than
80% of the Malaysian frontrunners use messaging apps on a daily basis compared
to 49% for SMS. Looking back to the same survey in 2012, the numbers were
reverse. This strong position of messaging apps today is mainly due to the
success of WhatsApp amongst Malaysian frontrunners. In Thailand, Internet voice
calling (32%) is a close competitor to ordinary mobile calls (35%) as the "most
important" communication tool.
Most talkative - via new AND old
Serbia stood out in the survey, albeit in another sense than Malaysia. Serbia
has by far the highest share of frontrunners who use ordinary phone calls and
SMS on a daily basis. The large majority use traditional mobile voice calls at
least once a day (94%). Yet, they are on par with Malaysia and Thailand when it
comes to frontrunners' use of messaging apps (85% use them daily).
Digital frontrunners in Hungary are ahead of their peers in Scandinavia and
Pakistan when it comes to the daily use of messaging apps but behind Serbia and
the Asian markets. While messaging apps are used by more than 70 % on a daily
basis, almost half of the Hungarian frontrunners still rank ordinary voice calls
as the most important service for mobile communication.
Embracing the new
Pakistan is an internet market still in the making, with traditional mobile
calls and SMS dominating the communication habits. However, its digital
frontrunners have embraced the new opportunities provided by digital
communications. Almost half of those surveyed use a variety of messaging apps
(Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Viber are popular choices) and more than a
third use internet voice and video calls on a daily basis.
"This is the first time Pakistan is included in the Digital Frontrunners survey
and our findings resemble those of the Malaysian respondents in 2012. The
Pakistani frontrunners may go down the same route as their Malaysian
counterparts over the next one to three years as internet access and smartphone
become increasingly common," said Sandberg.
Telco bias
In the mature mobile internet markets of Norway and Sweden, a high share of the
frontrunners still rate SMS and in particular mobile voice calls as the most
important communication tools. 38% of the Norwegian respondents and 34% of the
Swedish ones make traditional phone calls several times a day.
"Scandinavian frontrunners still use traditional mobile voice and SMS, partly
because these services are often bundled into monthly subscriptions," adds
Sandberg.
The Scandinavians also appear to use less of their communication time on
internet based options compared to their peers in the other markets, with
Pakistan as the exception. However, internet messaging is still on the rise.
In Norway, 64% says they use messaging apps at least once a day and the growth
in daily use of messaging apps in Sweden has exploded from 14% to 55% over three
years.
The Facebook family takes position
Messaging apps are the winners in the brave new digital world - particularly in
the mature markets. Malaysia, Thailand and Serbia are at the forefront of
frequent daily usage. With services such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp
under its umbrella, Facebook Inc. is the overall leader. Still, its strongest
competitor varies from market to market. In Serbia, Viber is by far the most
important internet based service, whereas Line has the strongest position among
the Thais in much the same way WhatsApp has taken a dominating position in
Malaysia. In Norway, Facebook Messenger has now caught up with Snapchat's
previously dominant position as the most popular communication app.
Despite the popularity of internet based messaging, traditional SMS is still
important for frontrunners in Scandinavia, Pakistan and in particular Serbia.
New contender: Internet calling
In addition to a hunger for messaging apps, the Thai frontrunners have the
highest consumption of, and the strongest preference for, new frontline services
such as internet voice calls and video calls of the surveyed markets (65% and
52% daily use respectively). The Serbian frontrunners are closely behind the
Thais but ahead of their European peers when it comes to share of daily users of
internet voice calls (49%) and video calls (30%).
Strikingly, these features are not popular amongst Scandinavian frontrunners,
where more than a third of respondents in Norway and Sweden never call via the
internet (voice or video). This is remarkably low considering the broad
availability of internet access and smartphones in the markets. Only 5% of
Norwegian frontrunners use video calls on a daily basis.
Games, music & fun
Across the surveyed countries, frontrunners use the mobile for a wide set of
activities. The majority use it to browse and communicate on a daily basis, but
also to listen to music, watch videos and share photos on a weekly basis. Mobile
gaming is popular across the markets, particularly with Thai, Malaysian and
Hungarian frontrunners.
An impressive 22% of Thais say they shop online on a daily basis compared to 3%
in Norway. This could be attributed to the popularity of LINE, which also serves
as a payment platform.
The Swedes have the highest share of users who use the mobile to transfer money
or use financial services on a weekly basis (57%), followed by Thailand (49%)
and Norway (44%).
Pakistan is the only of the surveyed countries where a larger share use their
mobile phones for communicating on the internet than to browse. In all the other
six countries, browsing is the activity nearly everybody does.
You've got mail
Despite assumptions that internet communication is moving from email to social
media, email is used on mobile by a fair share of frontrunners in all surveyed
markets except Pakistan. Serbia has the highest share who use it several times a
day (39%) with Malaysia (33%), Thailand (33%) and Hungary (32%) more or less on
par. Norway (26%) and Sweden (24%) have fairly similar email habits, whereas
Pakistan stands out in this regard with a remarkable low share who use email on
their phones. Only 1% say this is used several times a day.
Download infographics here
For media queries, please contact:
Hanne Knudsen, Director, Media Relations, Telenor Group
Mob: +47 90 80 40 15
hanne.knudsen(at)telenor.com
About the Digital Frontrunners study:
* This third Digital Frontrunners study was conducted in November-December
2015
* More than 5600 mobile internet users, aged 16-35, from Malaysia, Thailand,
Pakistan, Serbia, Hungary, Sweden and Norway were interviewed about their
communication habits.
* The first Digital Frontrunners survey was conducted in Q4 2012, covering
Malaysia and Sweden.
* The second survey was conducted in Q2 2014 and extended the footprint to
also cover Thailand, Serbia and Norway.
This announcement is distributed by GlobeNewswire on behalf of
GlobeNewswire clients. The owner of this announcement warrants that:
(i) the releases contained herein are protected by copyright and
other applicable laws; and
(ii) they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and
originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Telenor via GlobeNewswire
[HUG#2021503]
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Datum: 20.06.2016 - 08:00 Uhr
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