Digital in 2018 | We Are Social & Hootsuite
Consumer Behavior | Global
Heading into the year of 2018, the new and recent global digital reports from We Are Social and HootSuite reveals the top line findings of the internet, social media, mobile, and e-commerce use around the whole world.
Global Internet Use in 2018
- 4.021 billion is the total number of active internet users in 2018, with a penetration rate of 53%.
- Northern and Western Europe regions have the highest internet penetration rates (94% and 90%, respectively).
- The highest internet penetration by country recorded 99% in UAE, 97% in Sweden, 96% in the Netherlands and 95% in the UK.
- Egypt has the highest year-over-year growth in the number of internet users which recorded 41%, followed by Kenya (35%) and Saudi Arabia (34%).
- Thailand is the top-ranked country in terms of time spent daily using the internet and mobile internet.
- google.com, facebook.com, and youtube.com are the world’s most visited websites.
- Facebook, YouTube, and Google, respectively, are the top Google search queries in 2017.
Global Social Media Use in 2018
- 3.196 billion is the total number of active social media users in 2018 with a penetration rate of 42%.
- Northern America (70%) and Northern Europe (66%) have the highest social media penetration rates by region.
- The social media penetration by country recorded its highest percentage in the UAE (99%), followed by South Korea (84%).
- Saudi Arabia and India achieved the highest year-over-year growth in the number of social media users with rates of 32% and 31%, respectively.
- Time spent on social media reached its highest record in the Philippines, Brazil, and Indonesia.
- Facebook is the top-ranked social media platforms in terms of active users, followed by YouTube, WhatsApp and then FB Messenger.
- 95.1% of Facebook usage occurred via smartphones and tablets, while 31.8% via laptops and desktops.
Global E-commerce Use in 2018
- UK (78%), South Korea (74%) Germany (74%) and Sweden (70%) are the countries with the highest e-commerce penetration rates.
- South Korea is at the top of all countries in terms of mCommerce penetration rate with a percentage of 58%.
- Most of the e-commerce spend is on the fashion and beauty category with a total of $408 billion, and a growth rate of 18% YOY.
- The total number of people purchasing consumer goods via e-commerce recorded 1.77 billion, with a growth rate of 8% YOY.
A Graph Shows the Internet Penetration by Region During Jan. 2018
We Are Social
We Are Social. They are a global agency. They deliver world-class creative ideas with forward-thinking brands. We Are Social belief in people, not platforms and the power of social insight to drive business value. They call this social thinking. With an international team of over 700 and offices in New York, Madrid, London, Paris, Milan, Munich, Berlin, Dubai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing and Sydney their mission is to put social thinking at the center of marketing. We Are Social work with clients including Adidas, Netflix, Google, HSBC, Renault and Audi on global, regional and local projects.
