What Percentage Of The Population Own Cryptocurrency

12½ trillion hours spent online, a new milestone in internet adoption, and new records for social media use…

If you expected digital to return to “concern every bit usual” in 2022, you may want to reset those expectations.

Our new
Digital 2022 Global Overview Report
– published in partnership with Nosotros Are Social and Hootsuite – reveals that most of the connected globe continues to abound
faster
than it did before the pandemic.

Big stories in this year’s written report include:

• Double-digit growth in social media users

• Large gains for YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok

• New insights into the world’s social media preferences

• The rise of social commerce

• Significant increases in the cost of social media ads

• Some uncomfortable truths about advertising

We’ve besides got a look dorsum at the starting time 10 years of the Global Digital Reports series.

At nigh 8,000 words, this article’s a bit of a beast, and so become yourself comfortable, and prepare for a full-on banquet of facts and figures.

Best-in-class data

As e’er, I’d like to first by saying a
very big
thank yous
to the world-form information partners who’ve made this year’s reports possible, especially:

• GWI

• Statista

• GSMA Intelligence

• App Annie

• Semrush

• SimilarWeb

• Locowise

• Skai

Important notes

Just before we get into the numbers, I’d like to encourage all readers to review our detailed notes on information, to understand how changes in data sources and methodologies may impact this year’s numbers.

Alerts to highlight include:

• Net users:
  delays in reporting due to COVID-nineteen may hateful that figures for “year-on-yr alter” correspond change over periods of more than ane year.

• Social media users:
  big changes in platform reporting mean that diverse numbers included in this twelvemonth’s reports are
  not directly comparable
  with figures for the same data points featured in our previous reports. Where we’ve been able to calculate representative growth figures, we’ve included those growth figures within this year’south reports, simply where we
  haven’t
  included growth figures, it’s likely that any comparisons with historical data will deliver
  incorrect values. Every bit a result, please avoid comparing social media users and advertising audience figures in this yr’s reports with figures published in our previous reports.

But without further ado, let’south dive into the data…

Meridian 10 takeaways

I’d recommend starting with this video, which offers a handy summary of this year’s essential headlines and trends.

One time you’ve finished watching that, read on below for the full written report.

Full written report

You’ll find our Digital 2022 Global Overview Report in the SlideShare embed below (click hither if that’s not working for you), but read on below for my complete assay of this year’southward top findings.

Essential headlines

Here are the key figures you lot need to understand the ‘state of digital’ today:

• Global population:
  The world’due south population stands at
  vii.91 billion
  in Jan 2022, with the annual growth rate of 1.0 percent suggesting that this figure volition accomplish 8 billion sometime in mid-2023. Well over one-half (57.0 percentage) of the world’southward population now lives in urban areas.

• Global mobile users:
  More two-thirds (67.1 percent) of the earth’s population now uses a mobile phone, with unique users reaching
  5.31 billion
  by the start of 2022. The global total has grown by 1.eight percent over the by year, with 95 1000000 new mobile users since this fourth dimension last year.

• Global internet users:
  Global internet users have climbed to
  4.95 billion
  at the showtime of 2022, with internet penetration now standing at 62.5 percent of the world’s total population. Data bear witness that cyberspace users have grown by 192 1000000 (+4.0 percent) over the past year, but ongoing restrictions to research and reporting due to COVID-19 mean that actual growth trends may be considerably higher than these figures advise.

• Global social media users:
  In that location are
  four.62 billion
  social media users around the world in January 2022. This figure is equal to 58.iv per centum of the world’s total population, although it’s worth noting that social media “users” may not represent unique individuals (learn why). Global social media users take grown by more than 10 percent over the past 12 months, with 424 one thousand thousand new users starting their social media journeying during 2021.

These numbers provide valuable context for digital adoption and growth, but in guild to brand sense of what people are actually
doing
online, we need to dig deeper into the numbers.

And the expert news is that nosotros’ve got
lots
of numbers to dig into…

A decade of digital growth

This twelvemonth marks the 10th anniversary of the first global report in our Global Digital Reports series, so nosotros tin now look back over a total decade of digital data.

If you lot’d like to indulge in a bit of nostalgia, you can observe our first Global Overview Report hither, while all subsequent reports in the series are also available in our free library.

You can also find my comprehensive analysis of primal trends over the by decade in this in-depth article.

Notation that considerably more than data is available today than it was at the time nosotros produced many of our earlier reports though, so some of the figures I’ll embrace beneath may not match those that we published in previous reports.

Net user growth

Kepios analysis reveals that internet users accept more doubled over the past 10 years, climbing from 2.18 billion at the commencement of 2012 to
4.95 billion
at the beginning of 2022.

That results in a compound almanac growth rate (CAGR) of viii.6 percent for the past decade as a whole, but – as you can see in the chart beneath – annual growth rates accept fluctuated meaningfully from 1 year to another.

The latest data advise that net users grew by 192 one thousand thousand over the by 12 months, resulting in annual growth of just iv.0 percent in 2021.

However, nosotros strongly suspect that this lower growth figure is more probable the consequence of challenges associated with collecting and reporting data during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and that these numbers don’t reflect the actual growth in internet users over the past year.

Equally a effect, there’s a very good take a chance that we’ll report higher numbers for growth between 2021 and 2022 once newer data becomes available.

Social media user growth

Meanwhile, social media users take seen even faster growth than internet users over the past decade.

Today’south total of
4.62 billion
social media users is
3.1 times
higher than the ane.48 billion figure nosotros published in 2012, and ways that social media users accept grown at a CAGR of 12 percentage over the past decade.

Social media user growth has continued at a double-digit rate of 10.1 percentage over the past 12 months as well, only I confess I’grand surprised that the growth rate between 2021 and 2022 has remained above pre-pandemic levels.

For context, the latest data indicate that 424 meg users started their social media journey over the past twelvemonth, equating to an average of more than one one thousand thousand new users per twenty-four hours, or roughly 13½ new users
every single 2d.

Notwithstanding, anyone who had been wavering well-nigh joining social media earlier the pandemic struck would accept been well-nigh likely to join during the early days of lockdown in 2020, and then I’one thousand hesitant to attribute whatsoever meaningful share of growth over the most recent 12 months to some kind of “COVID event”.

Moreover, with social media users now equating to 58.4 percent of the world’due south total population, we should look to see growth rates start to decelerate over the next few years, and this may well exist the last time that we report double-digit annual growth in social media users.

The skillful news is that nosotros should see social media users achieve the equivalent of 60 percent of the global population old in 2022 though, then even if growth rates do subside, the overall achieve potential of social media should still offer plenty to go excited about.

Dig deeper:
click here to larn more about what futurity digital growth rates might wait similar.

Ever fewer offline, only big challenges remain

Information reveal that the number of people who remain “unconnected” to the internet has now dropped below 3 billion for the first time.

This marks a significant milestone in the globe’south journey towards equal digital access, and has particular relevance as the function of connected devices has moved from luxury to lifeline, specially during the COVID-nineteen pandemic.

However, the latest data likewise reveal that there’s plenty more than piece of work to practice.

More than 1 billion people remain offline across Southern Asia, while most 840 million people are however to come online beyond Africa.

Meanwhile, despite bookkeeping for roughly ane in 5 of the world’s
continued
population, China is still home to more than 400 meg of the globe’south “unconnected”.

For context, the median age of the population plays an of import part in shaping adoption levels across many parts of Africa, with more than one-half of the populations of several countries in the region still below the age of 20.

All the same, basic infrastructure challenges remain an important consideration likewise.

For example, in the Cardinal African Republic – where internet adoption remains stubbornly low – barely 1 in seven people currently has access to electricity, and the vast majority of people still don’t have access to basic sanitation either.

Furthermore, the fantabulous State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2021 report from GSMA Intelligence reveals that 1 in 4 people across lower- and middle-income countries is still unaware of the being of mobile net.

In other words, hundreds of millions of people around the world may still not even know that the cyberspace exists.

So, while the UN may take designated internet access a “basic homo right”, in that location’due south nevertheless a long way to go to ensure that everyone has equal admission to what is arguably the near of import innovation of our historic period.

Related:
click here to learn more near the world’south tiptop motivations for going online.

Social media favourites

When information technology comes to the world’s “favourite” social media platforms, GWI’s latest information reveals that Instagram has now overtaken Facebook to claim
2d
place in the worldwide rankings.

It’s still a close call though: xiv.8 percent of global cyberspace users identify Instagram as their favourite platform, compared with 14.5 percent for Facebook.

Withal, nonetheless another Meta platform – WhatsApp – tops the global rankings, with xv.7 pct of working-historic period cyberspace users choosing the messenger app as their favourite social platform.

Interestingly, WeChat gains enough votes to rank fourth at a global level, despite a whopping 99 per centum of the platform’southward votes coming from users within Mainland Prc.

Mainland china is abode to roughly twenty pct of the world’s total internet users though, and then it’s perhaps unsurprising that the country’south social media users have such a big impact on these global rankings.

Nonetheless, you may exist more surprised to see TikTok gain simply 4.3 percent of the full vote.

That doesn’t quite match the excitement TikTok generates in the media, but it’s worth noting that the number of people choosing TikTok as their favourite social platform has jumped by 71 pct in the past 90 days, and TikTok’s overall share of the vote has increased by 180 footing points in but 3 months.

Furthermore, App Annie reports that TikTok was the nigh-downloaded mobile app in 2021, and the platform continues to enjoy strong growth in ad accomplish also (more on that below).

As a result, we might expect to see TikTok make even bigger gains in these rankings over the coming months, so be sure to follow our quarterly Statshot reports in 2022 to keep runway of its progress.

Dig deeper:
take a closer look at how social media favourites vary by age and gender in this commodity.

Time spent using connected tech continues to ascent

Ane of the tiptop stories at the offset of the COVID-19 pandemic was how much more than the world came to depend on the internet, particularly equally countries entered lockdown.

However, despite fluctuations in move restrictions over the by two years, the latest data bear witness that people are in fact spending more time than ever using continued tech.

Cyberspace time

Research from GWI reveals that the “typical” global internet user now spends well-nigh 7 hours per twenty-four hours using the cyberspace across all devices.

For context, if we assume that the average person sleeps for roughly 7 to 8 hours per twenty-four hour period, the typical internet user now spends more than than 40 percentage of their waking life online.

The amount of fourth dimension we spend online continues to climb too, with the daily average increasing past 4 minutes per twenty-four hour period (+i.0 percent) over the by year.

That may not audio like a big increment, but added upwardly across all of the globe’s net users, those 4 extra minutes per twenty-four hour period volition equate to more than
five billion
additional days
of internet apply in 2022.

In total, the latest numbers suggest that the world will spend more than
12½ trillion hours
online in 2022 alone.

As with most information points in our Global Digital Reports, however, in that location are considerable differences in time spent by geography.

South Africans now spend the greatest corporeality of fourth dimension online each day, with the land’s working-age internet users saying that they spend an average of 10 hours and 46 minutes using continued tech every solar day.

Filipinos, Brazilians, and Colombians aren’t far backside, with the boilerplate internet user in those countries each spending more than than 10 hours per twenty-four hour period online.

At the other end of the calibration, Japanese users spend the least amount of time online each day, with the national average still below 4½ hours per twenty-four hours.

It’s also interesting to note that China sits quite far down these rankings, with the country’s internet users saying they spend an boilerplate of five hours and fifteen minutes per 24-hour interval online.

Social media fourth dimension

At an boilerplate of 2 hours and 27 minutes per twenty-four hour period, social media accounts for the largest single share of our continued media fourth dimension, at 35 percent of the full.

The time we spend using social media has grown again over the by year too, up by 2 minutes per twenty-four hours (+one.4 per centum).

Still, social media’due south share of overall internet time has really fallen slightly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our assay suggests that this is largely because people have embraced a diversity of new online activities over the by ii years, then – relatively – social media at present accounts for a smaller share of total online time than it did when people did fewer things online.

All the same, with the world gear up to spend more than than 4 trillion hours using social media in 2022, there’southward little doubt that social media yet plays a fundamental role in our everyday lives.

Dig deeper:
click here to encounter how social media time compares with time spent watching Television set.

Social media time past platform

But how does that social media fourth dimension break downwards past platform?

Well, the good news is that the wonderful folks at App Annie have shared some bully data with us this year that reveals how much time people spend using the Android apps of several elevation social platforms.

For context, handsets running Android account for roughly 7 in ten smartphones in employ around the world today, so – while these figures may non include all social media users – they still provide rich insights into how the world actually
uses
social media platforms.

Overall, App Annie’s data shows that YouTube accounts for the greatest total time spent using social media apps on Android phones, and it besides clocks the highest average time per user.

App Annie’s enquiry indicates that the typical YouTube user now spends well-nigh a total day –
23.7 hours
– per calendar month using YouTube’s mobile app, but remember that the platform likely also sees meaningful activity on its website, as well equally via embeds on third-party websites.

Facebook comes 2d in terms of full, cumulative time spent using social media apps, with Android users averaging
19.6 hours
in the platform’s app each calendar month.

TikTok users too clock in an average of
19.6 hours
per month using the TikTok Android app, but because the platform has fewer overall users, TikTok only comes 5th in these rankings by cumulative time spent beyond all users.

WhatsApp comes third in terms of full time spent, with users spending an average of
eighteen.vi hours
per month using the messenger app on Android phones.

Instagram ranks fourth, but users spend considerably less time using the app each month compared with the residue of the summit five, at simply
11.2 hours
per calendar month.

At 11.half dozen hours per month, LINE also sees impressive average utilise rates, but with considerably fewer users overall, it only places ninth in the global rankings by full time spent.

For context, average monthly time per user has remained relatively stable across Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp over the past year.

Meanwhile, the fourth dimension spent using Instagram has increased by 10 percent yr on year, equating to almost 1 additional hour of employ per month.

Withal, TikTok has seen the biggest gains across the top 5 over the past 12 months.

TikTok’s users at present clock in an
extra
6 hours and 20 minutes per month using the platform’s Android app compared with this time concluding yr, equating to a twelvemonth-on-twelvemonth increase of 48 pct.

It’s important to stress that these figures vary considerably by geography though, and local rankings can look quite different to this global moving-picture show.

Dig deeper:
Explore local data for time spent across the acme 5 platforms in the total Digital 2022 study.

Facebook is however the about-used social platform

Insights into people’s “favourite” platforms and the time they spend using each one are perhaps the nigh representative data points for marketers preparing a social media plan.

Even so, agile user numbers still provide valuable benchmarks, especially when information technology comes to agreement a platform’s momentum.

Data published in Meta’southward Q3 2021 investor earnings announcement confirms that Facebook is still the world’s most-used social media platform, with 2.91 billion users as of October 2021 (the latest “official” figure at the time of writing).

Facebook’s monthly agile user base of operations grew by a solid 6.2 percent (+170 million users) over the past year, despite already reaching more than half of its total potential audience by age and accessibility (annotation that Facebook is still blocked in China).

YouTube has closed the gap with Facebook over the by year though, with the platform’s audience growing most twice as fast as Facebook’s.

YouTube now has at least 2.56 billion active users, which equates to roughly 88 percentage of the latest Facebook total.

Notwithstanding, note that the figures nosotros publish for YouTube are based on the platform’southward ad audition, whereas the figures for Facebook represent full monthly active users.

Meta hasn’t published any official updates to global WhatsApp user numbers in the past yr, but information technology’s probable that the platform still ranks third, with at least 2 billion agile users per calendar month.

Instagram ranks fourth at a global level, and has seen some of the fastest growth of whatever platform in the past year (you’ll observe more detailed assay of Instagram’s growth subsequently in this article).

WeChat closes out the superlative 5, with China’s favourite social media platform now challenge 1.26 billion monthly active users.

Notwithstanding, all eyes volition doubtless exist on TikTok, which currently sits in sixth place in these agile user rankings.

Bytedance announced that the platform had passed 1 billion monthly active users back in September 2021, merely the company has been characteristically tight-lipped since then, and then that figure remains the latest “official” number.

Yet, information technology’s worth noting that TikTok’s active user base of operations roughly doubled betwixt December 2019 and September 2021, and with the platform still claiming top spot in the global app download charts, it’southward almost certain that TikTok’s monthly active users continue to grow (more on that beneath).

Meanwhile, Meta hasn’t published an “official” monthly active user (MAU) number for Messenger since September 2017, and then nosotros’ve decided to use the platform’s latest ad audience reach figure in these rankings, instead of that older MAU headline.

Note that LinkedIn doesn’t publish
active
user numbers, which is why we’re unable to include it in this list.

Dig deeper:
stay upwards to date with all the latest social media stats via our dedicated platform pages.

Instagram keeps growing

The latest data published in Meta’southward advertising resources shows that Instagram’due south ad reach has jumped past an impressive 21 per centum over the past year, despite important changes in how the company reports its advertizing audience numbers.

Meta’s own data suggests that more than a quarter of a billion new users joined Instagram during 2021, pushing the platform’southward global ad achieve to most i.5 billion users by the start of 2022.

What’due south more, Instagram’s audience grew by more than than 6 percent (+85 million users) in just the by 90 days, which suggests that its growth rates continue to accelerate

Instagram has been posting impressive quarterly growth rates for some time now, and our analysis of the company’south ad accomplish numbers indicates growth of almost 60 pct over the past two years.

Our Digital 2022 Global Overview Study besides includes data for some of Instagram’s individual ‘environments’, which will exist particularly useful for marketers exploring opportunities such as short video formats and social search.

For context, ads in Instagram’southward “home feed” reach almost all (96.6 percentage) of Instagram’s active user base each month, so these placements remain the surest way to attain the largest Instagram audition.

However, ads in Instagram Stories now reach more than than one billion users each calendar month, and – with the format’s boosted functionality and artistic options – the Stories environment represents an ever more compelling opportunity.

Meanwhile, slightly less than 800 million users also see ads in Instagram’southward Explore tab each calendar month.

This finding may have added relevance for marketers launching new brands and products, considering users browsing the Explore tab are more probable to be looking for new content, ideas, and inspiration.

Reels oasis’t quite gained the same momentum as Stories yet, just data reveals that 675 million Instagram users still meet ads in the platform’s dedicated video tab each month.

Nosotros’ll take a closer await at Instagram Shop in the social commerce section later in this article.

Dig deeper:
click here to explore the demographics of Instagram’southward various ad audiences.

TikTok’s rapid rise continues

TikTok’s advertizement audience likewise continues to abound at an centre-watering pace.

The latest figures published in Bytedance’s advertising resources indicate that TikTok’due south ad accomplish increased by 60 million users (+7.3 percent) in but the past 90 days, taking worldwide ad reach to roughly 885 one thousand thousand by the start of 2022.

However, it’southward important to stress that this figure
doesn’t
include users below the age of 18, who probable make up a sizeable share of the platform’s total active user base of operations [annotation: due to what the company describes equally “data security requirements”, Bytedance’s tools only show advertizing reach information for audiences aged 18 and above, although marketers can notwithstanding target ads to users aged 13 and to a higher place].

The latest data suggest that TikTok has been adding an boilerplate of more than than 650,000 new users every mean solar day over the past 3 months, which equates to almost 8 new users
every second.

And what’due south more, despite stereotypes, TikTok isn’t only popular with younger users.

Advert audience data for TikTok users aged eighteen and above indicates that more than than three-quarters of all adults in Saudi arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait already employ the platform.

Meanwhile, TikTok users aged 18 and above in the United States now equate to more than half (50.3 percent) of all American adults.

As with all social media audience data in our Global Digital Reports, “users” may non represent unique individuals, but either fashion, information technology’s clear that TikTok has already fabricated a huge impression around the world, and is as well an increasingly popular option.

Dig deeper:
read more than about TikTok’s rise and audition profile by clicking here.

YouTube’s advertizing reach passes 2.5 billion

Our latest analysis reveals that ads on YouTube now attain more than than two½ billion users, with that figure increasing by a hefty xi.ix percent (+271 million users) over the past 12 months.

What’southward more, these figures merely business relationship for users in around 75 of the world’s larger economies, so at that place’s a very adept gamble that the total attain of YouTube ads is considerably higher than these published figures propose.

The available data indicate that YouTube ads at present reach roughly i in iii people on Earth, with that figure rising to 37.vii percent of adults aged eighteen and higher up.

However, if we focus only on those countries for which data are available, a far more impressive story emerges.

YouTube ads now attain more than than iii-quarters of adults aged 18 and in a higher place across most of the Western world, and more than
90 percent
of all adults in a full of 14 countries.

Across impressive reach numbers, marketers may also be interested to learn that music is increasingly important for YouTube’s global audiences, with 11 of the platform’s top 20 search terms over the past year relating directly to music.

This trend is also axiomatic in our ranking of the platform’s most-subscribed channels, as well as our updated ranking of the platform’s all-time about viewed videos – both of which you lot’ll find in the full study.

Dig deeper:
discover what YouTube users have been watching in our more granular analysis.

Related:
click here to learn more about how the world’south online video and music habits are irresolute.

Social media for piece of work

GWI’s latest numbers show that almost i in 4 cyberspace users anile 16 to 64 now uses social media for work-related activities.

Nonetheless, this figure is considerably higher across many developing economies.

At the top of the scale, more than four in 10 working-age cyberspace users in Kenya (41.five pct) say that they use social media for piece of work-related inquiry.

Filipinos and S Africans are also considerably more likely to use social media for piece of work than the global average, with more one-third of internet users anile sixteen to 64 in both countries maxim that social media plays a role in their professional activities.

The median age of the overall population appears to play an important office in shaping how probable people in a particular country are to use social media for work, although it’s as well worth noting that Greece seems to buck this trend.

While we’re on the subject of professional person social media, information technology’s likewise worth noting that LinkedIn has had some other impressive year.

Our analysis of data published in the platform’south advertising resource reveals that LinkedIn’s registered fellow member base has increased by 11 percent over the 12 months (+81 million members), taking the global full to more than than 808 million by the start of 2022.

Dig deeper:
we’ll be taking a closer look at how people use connected tech at work in our upcoming Digital 2022 Apr Global Statshot report, and then wait out for that towards the end of April.

Large rising in social media ad spend

Various data points in this year’s reports reveal that spending on social media ads has jumped significantly over the past 12 months.

For example, data from Statista shows that global social media advertizement spend exceeded USD $150 billion in 2021, with social media ads accounting for roughly one-3rd (33.1 percent) of total digital spend.

Meanwhile, the latest assay from Skai shows that advertisers spent fourteen pct more than on social media ads in Q4 2021 than they did in the same quarter of 2020.

In line with this increase in overall spend, Q4 social media CPMs jumped by 21.7 percentage year on year, with advertisers around the world paying an boilerplate of USD $9.13 for 1,000 social media advertizing impressions beyond the last 3 months of 2021.

Crucially though, because of the higher average price per impression, social media advertisers actually delivered
fewer
total impressions in Q4 2021 compared with the same period in 2020, despite spending more overall.

Related:
click here to larn which social media platforms drive the greatest share of web traffic.

Social media’southward role in the marketing mix

Despite those rising advert costs, marketers will be reassured to learn that new research confirms the effectiveness of social media advertizement.

GWI’s latest information reveals that more than one in 4 internet users aged sixteen to 64 (27.6 percentage) discover new brands, products, and services via social media ads, which is only slightly less than the figure for Boob tube ads (31.ane percent).

Search engines are still the top source of new brand discovery for the world’south internet users though, with 31.7 pct of GWI’due south sample saying that they’ve learned about new brands via an online search.

Meanwhile, discussion-of-mouth recommendations too rank highly for brand discovery, so marketers may desire to re-examine how piece of cake information technology is for audiences to share their make and its diverse online presences via messenger apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.

In addition to paid placements, it’s also worth noting that just under i in 4 working-age cyberspace users (23.2 percent) actively likes or follows a brand on social media every month, while nearly 1 in 8 (12.two percent) says that they (re)share brands’ social media posts at least once per month.

GWI’south research shows that brands’ social media activities play an of import part at other stages in the buy cycle as well.

For example, more than 4 in 10 working-historic period internet users say that they visit social networks specifically to enquiry brands and products that they’re thinking of ownership, with this figure rising to
half
of all net users aged 16 to 24.

Just alongside all of these positive findings, there are too some more worrying trends in this year’southward data.

For example, the latest information from Locowise indicates that Facebook pages can now expect an boilerplate engagement rate of just 0.07 percent.

That means that – on average – just vii fans in every ten,000 will react to, comment on, or share whatsoever given mail service.

And fifty-fifty more disturbingly, that average falls to simply 0.05 percent for pages with more than than 100,000 fans.

Related:
explore insights into social media marketing effectiveness in Hootsuite’due south Social Media Trends 2022 report.

The representativeness of advert

Some other troubling finding in this twelvemonth’due south information is that barely i in 6 working-historic period cyberspace users (17.3 pct) says that they feel represented in the ads that they meet, regardless of the advertising medium.

At the better end of the scale, GWI reports that people in Mainland china are the well-nigh likely to say that they feel represented in ads, with just over 1 in 4 (26.8 pct) answering in the affirmative.

All the same, just one in 9 Americans has a similar perspective, and the figure drops to but 1 in eleven for people in the United kingdom.

Japan sits at the bottom of the rankings, with just 1 in 24 respondents in the state saying that they experience represented in the ads that they come across – and this despite Japanese brands spending more USD $47 billion on advert in 2021.

Still, this poor result may in part exist due to Japan’southward high median historic period.

Indeed, GWI’s data highlight the fact that – all over the world – older people feel particularly detached from advert, with just i in 9 global net users aged 55 to 64 (10.8 percentage) saying that they recognise themselves in the advertising that they come across.

But therein lies one of the many challenges in interpreting and interim on this data.

Should advertising actually
reflect
the audience that it’south aimed at, or should it offering an alternative perspective (east.grand. a more “aspirational” lifestyle)?

This is 1 of the more contentious questions in marketing, and – sadly – there are no simple answers.

The best communication I can offering is to invest both fourth dimension and resources in understanding not just what your specific audience’s life looks like, but also in understanding people’s hopes, dreams, and fears.

Conventional research volition be an invaluable tool hither, and many of the data partners featured in this year’south reports will be able to assistance.

Similarly, while social listening may non brand the media headlines it used to, I firmly believe that regular social listening tin can provide some of the most powerful insights into what people actually
care
about.

So, equally y’all put the finishing touches to those 2022 plans, be sure to put aside some time and money for active exploration of what matters to your audiences, and what “ad representativeness” might look like on
their
terms.

Related:
learn about the latest cultural themes shaping advertizement effectiveness in We Are Social’s Think Forward 2022 report.

Ecommerce trends

As we predicted in our Digital 2021 reports, the increases in ecommerce adoption that nosotros’ve seen since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic show no signs of abating, even every bit move restrictions come and become.

Information from GWI shows that nearly 6 in 10 working-historic period internet users (58.4 percent) now buy something online every
calendar week, with that figure continuing to ascent throughout 2021.

Many of our lockdown-inspired behaviours accept as well endured, even equally people venture back out into the earth.

For example, virtually iii in 10 of usa (28.3 percent) now buy groceries online every week, with the absolute number of online grocery shoppers increasing by 10 percent in just the past 6 months.

Meanwhile, spending in the grocery category has grown even faster than user numbers have.

Figures in Statista’s Digital Market place Outlook testify that online spend in the the Food and Beverages categories grew by more than 35 pct during 2021, with total annual revenue across these ii categories reaching $588 billion.

Overall, global revenues associated with online purchases of “consumer appurtenances” – which include groceries, style, electronics, and other household items – increased past more than
half a trillion
Us dollars during 2021 (+eighteen percent), reaching a full of USD $3.85 trillion for the twelvemonth as a whole.

Statista’southward data also reveals that the world’s ecommerce shoppers at present spend an boilerplate of more than USD $i,000 per person, per twelvemonth on online consumer appurtenances purchases.

Nonetheless, once once again, the story varies considerably by geography.

Average revenue per user (ARPU) for online consumer goods purchases now exceeds USD $iii,000 per year in Hong Kong and the United states of america, just remains below USD $100 in Nigeria.

There’s some more optimistic news for travel brands in this year’southward data, likewise.

Online travel revenues remain considerably lower than they were in 2019, but consumer spending has increased steadily over the past 12 months.

Statista’due south Mobility Market Outlook reports that global online spend on flights grew by USD $xi billion (+6.8 pct) in 2021, reaching a total of USD $173 billion for the year.

The value of online hotel bookings has increased even faster though, with global revenues upward by 45 percent compared with last year.

The earth spent $142 billion on online hotel bookings in 2021, with annual revenues increasing by USD $44 billion compared with the overall total for 2020.

But the latest data too reveal that ecommerce isn’t just virtually getting “the latest and greatest”.

Inquiry from GWI reveals that ‘recommerce’ is also an increasingly pop choice, with i in vii internet users anile 16 to 64 (14.four percentage) ownership a used or 2nd-hand item online each week.

Additional data:
for a comprehensive look at the latest ecommerce stats and trends, check out Shopify’s excellent new Future of Commerce reports, which our Global Digital Reports squad also contributed to.

Social commerce takes off

New additions to this twelvemonth’s reports include figures for advert reach on Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Shop.

These figures just stand for the number of users that marketers can attain with
ads
in these environments, and they may not correspond the full extent of each environment’south full active user base.

Indeed, Meta reports that more than 1 billion Facebook users admission Marketplace each calendar month, so there seems to be quite a big gap between total Market place users, and the share of those users that sees ads within Facebook’s commerce environment.

However, this gap exists across other Meta products besides, and our analysis suggests that Facebook’s overall ad reach just equates to about 72 pct of the platform’s total monthly active user figure [find some potential explanations

hither].

What’s more, these Marketplace and Instagram Shop figures nevertheless tell a compelling story, and further demonstrate that social commerce has already gained rapid momentum.

For example, ads in Facebook Marketplace now achieve more 560 million users each calendar month, equating to more than a quarter of the platform’s total ad reach.

In line with overall platform demographics, Facebook Marketplace attracts a larger male person audition, with men accounting for 55 percent of the Marketplace audience.

However, the more interesting finding is that the Marketplace audience tends to be considerably older than the Facebook audience equally a whole.

Users over the age of 35 account for more than half (50.nine percent) of Marketplace’southward global ad audience, however they business relationship for only 40.9 percentage of Facebook’due south overall advertisement audience.

Note that Facebook limits utilize of Market place to users aged xviii and to a higher place, which explains why figures in the lowest historic period bracket are so low.

Instagram Shop has too started to proceeds momentum, with Meta’s tools reporting that advertisers can now attain more than 187 one thousand thousand users with ads in the Shop tab each calendar month.

Still, in contrast to the findings for Marketplace higher up, the data bespeak that women account for a much greater share of Instagram Shop’s global advertising audience.

Related:
could social commerce assist Meta build an culling to its ad-funded model? Learn more in our detailed assay.

Mobile apps are a serious business

App Annie’s new Land of Mobile 2022 report reveals that the typical mobile user now spends an average of 4 hours and 48 minutes per user, per day using their phone.

That means that the world’s v.three billion mobile users will spend more than
1 billion years
of combined human time using mobile phones in 2022.

And all that time adds up to serious money, too.

In addition to the handset revenues that helped to propel Apple Inc. to a USD $3 trillion marketplace cap before this month, the world’south smartphone users spent a combined total of USD $170 billion on mobile apps and in-app purchases in 2021.

Based on Ericsson’s latest figures for the number of handsets in use around the world, that equates to an average of more than than USD $27 per handset.

That may not sound like a huge amount, but to put those figures in context, worldwide consumer spend on mobile apps now equates to roughly 0.2 per centum of total global Gdp.

What’s more, these revenue figures merely include transactions made directly through app stores, and
don’t
include things like ecommerce purchases made via mobile apps, or mobile advertising revenues.

Consumer spending on apps continues to increase too, with 2021 revenue increasing by almost xix percent compared with the full for 2020.

Additional data:
find more than great mobile insights in App Annie’s splendid State of Mobile 2022 report.

Mobile connections advance

And in more good news for the mobile economy, cellular data connection speeds also go along to accelerate.

Assay from Ookla reveals that the median worldwide download speed via mobile connections increased by roughly a 3rd over the past twelvemonth, and more than half of the world’south mobile internet users now enjoy information connection speeds in excess of 29 megabits per second (Mbps).

For context, 29 Mbps is more than than fast enough to stream a 4K video without whatsoever buffering.

Notation that Ookla recently inverse its focus from
mean
speeds to
median
speeds though (click hither to understand the deviation), and then these latest numbers aren’t directly comparable to the figures we featured in previous reports.

Even so, this change in metrics doesn’t backbite from the overall story: mobile connections are getting much faster, much more quickly.

This tendency volition exist of particular interest to futurists, considering faster mobile data speeds may also assistance to advance developers’ power to deliver engaging AR, VR, and broader metaverse experiences via mobile connections.

Dig deeper:
read our complete analysis of mobile and fixed connections speeds by clicking here.

Related:
make sense of today’s mobile cyberspace landscape with the help of GSMA Intelligence’south Land of Mobile Net Connectivity report.

Cryptocurrencies catch on

The number of people who own cryptocurrencies has jumped by more than a third (+37.viii percent) since this fourth dimension last year.

GWI reports that more than 1 in 10 working-age cyberspace users now owns some class of cryptocurrency, with that figure rising to more than ii in 10 in Thailand.

Cryptocurrencies are particularly popular across developing economies, especially in countries where conventional currencies are more than prone to big fluctuations in exchange rates.

For example, in Turkey – where the local lira has lost roughly half of its value versus the United states of america dollar over the past year – ownership of cryptocurrencies has almost doubled (+86 percent) in the past twelve months, from 10 percentage to 18.6 percentage.

However, “crypto” ownership is yet heavily male person skewed, and older audiences are also underrepresented.

Fewer than 1 in 20 internet users aged 55 to 64 owns whatsoever cryptocurrency today, and this finding may have of import implications for policy makers exploring the potential for digital currencies.

Dig deeper:
learn more well-nigh cryptocurrency trends in GWI’south first-class Connecting the Dots report.

Most people pay for digital content

Contrary to stereotypes, the world’s internet users are not averse to paying for digital content.

GWI finds that more than than vii in 10 working-historic period internet users (71.5 percent) now pay for some grade of digital content each month, with that figure rising to almost 8 in 10 amidst younger Millennials.

Maybe unsurprisingly given the rapid rise of platforms similar Netflix and Spotify, TV and music streaming subscriptions are the most popular forms of paid digital content.

However, people withal pay for downloads as well, with more than 1 in 5 internet users saying that they’ve paid to download music inside the past thirty days.

In full, Statista reports that the world’s net users spent near USD $300 billion on digital content in 2021.

Interestingly though, despite the popularity of video and music streaming platforms, spend on video games deemed for more than one-half of that global total, highlighting just how valuable the gaming audience remains.

Related:
explore the ascension of cross-cultural content in our in-depth assay.

Looking ahead: digital in 2022

That’south almost all for my analysis of this twelvemonth’s Global Overview Report, merely hither are a few things to look out for over the coming months:

1. We should pass the momentous 5 billion net user milestone in time for our adjacent quarterly Statshot report. To celebrate, we’ll offer a bumper drove of insights into how the internet impacts daily lives around the world, so be sure to cheque back for that analysis in late April.

2. We may meet some turbulence in the world of decentralised finance (DeFi) over the next few months, with the value of cryptocurrencies standing their wild swings. Moreover, with ever more than people investing in these “alternative” financial instruments, we can expect calls for greater regulation, more than stringent regime oversight, and – near inevitably – new forms of revenue enhancement.

3. At the same time, while the underlying tech is undoubtedly hither to stay, people will come up to realise that NFTs are zippo more than than certificates of digital ownership, and – ultimately – information technology’s the avails they stand for that make up one’s mind their actual value. Equally a outcome, I hope we’ll encounter the NFT conversation shift abroad from irrational speculation, and put greater accent on helping the world’due south creators derive enduring value from their hard piece of work. If that shift doesn’t happen shortly, I fearfulness NFTs will go the same manner as ICOs.

4. Post-obit the success of Squid Game, Coin Heist, and Lupin, look the unexpected when information technology comes to digitally distributed culture. Streaming platforms brand it easier than ever for dandy content to travel around the globe in an instant, fuelled by the social media water-libation and ever more accurate algorithms. As a result, tomorrow’due south big hits are just as likely to come from Hanoi and Harare equally they are to come from Hollywood.

5. We’ll first to meet greater convergence across digital activities, with formats like Live Commerce blending the best of social media, amusement, and online shopping. Similarly, as faster mobile connections and more powerful mobile devices become ever more accessible, we can look more immersive content experiences. In particular, I’g expecting to see AR find its way into rich music ‘experiences’ (well across music videos), while a scattering of brands will also move beyond hype and hot air to deliver some truly compelling experiences in online virtual worlds.

Hopefully that’s given you more than enough to think about, simply just in case you’re already craving your next set of facts and figures, y’all might like to know that I’ll be dorsum in a couple of weeks with the first of our Digital 2022 local country reports, which we’ll start publishing in mid-February.

And finally…

I suspect yous’ve only made information technology this far because y’all’re anxious to find the latest updates in i of our virtually idea-provoking datasets, then I won’t leave you disappointed.

Regular readers will be pleased to hear that the boxing for the internet continues, but – for the tertiary twelvemonth in a row – data suggests that dogs may once again have had the upper
hand
paw in 2021.

To date, users accept published more than than 330 million posts to Instagram tagged with #dog, compared with simply 257 million posts tagged with #true cat.

These figures reveal that Instagram has seen an impressive 38 1000000 new #domestic dog posts since our 2021 report, just simply 27 million new posts for #cat.

Yet, canines’ dogged success over the past yr isn’t merely downward to the #dogsofinstagram.

A similar design has played out on TikTok, where #dog posts now exceed 205 meg, compared to but 137 million for #cat posts.

In a more encouraging finding for the felines, Twitter users announced to have get a little less extreme in their animal views over the past year, but dog lovers still outnumber cat lovers on the platform by a cistron of almost iv to 1.

Dogs are conspicuously more salient in the zeitgeist too, with Google Trends information revealing that the world’south internet users searched for dogs twice as often every bit they searched for cats during 2021.

However, despite these valiant canine capers, cats yet rule the web: Google returns more than than 2.83 billion pages for “cat” today, compared with merely ii.4 billion for “dog”.

Don’t hate the messenger.