Japanese have ‘least friends’

A study by research outfit TNS has revealed the online habits of social media consumers worldwide.

The Digital Life Report aims to be comprehensive study of the "global digital consumer" and among the findings online consumers in Malaysia topped the popularity stakes with an average of 231 ‘friends’ in social networks while the Japanese had the fewest with just 29.

Globally, people who have on-line access have digital sources as their number one media channel. 61 per cent of online users use the internet daily against 54 per cent for TV, 36 per cent for Radio and 32 per cent for Newspapers.

The study showed tghat online consumers in "rapid growth markets" had overtaken mature markets in terms of engaging with digital activities. When looking at behaviour online, rapid growth markets such as Egypt (56 per cent) and China (54 per cent) have much higher levels of digital engagement than mature markets such as Japan (20 per cent), Denmark (25 per cent) or Finland (26 per cent).

Growth in social networking has been fuelled by the transition from PC to mobile, the study claims. Mobile users spend on average 3.1 hours per week on social networking sites compared to just 2.2 hours on email. When looking at how the digital landscape will change in the future, research shows that consumers expect their use of social networking on mobiles to increase more than use through PC.

The research showed that in the US a quarter of online consumers expect their use of social networking on a PC to increase compared to over a third who will be looking to their mobile to increase usage. In Australia the figures are 26 per cent and 44 per cent respectively, and in Sweden they are 28 er cent and 53 per cent.