South-east Asia boasts the highest social network usage in the world, according to an eMarketer forecast.
The report focused on countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Indonesia was ranked highest when it came to social network penetration rate, with 77.4 per cent of internet users visiting a social media site at least once a month in 2015.
The forecast also revealed that Indonesia boasts the largest social network, attracting 72.3 million people per month this year.
eMarketer projects this will climb to 109.8 million (82.2 per cent of internet users) by 2018.
The Philippines was ranked second, with 74 per cent (39.7 million) of internet users regularly surfing social media networks.
A potentially untapped source for marketers, the graphs below reveal Facebook is south-east Asia’s most popular channel, with Twitter enjoying less popularity, but predicted to experience more significant growth over the next few years.
Haixia Wang, VP of forecasting at eMarketer, commented: “Social network penetration, while high among internet users in south-east Asia, is somewhat low in more general terms because internet penetration is lower than average in the region. This means that south-east Asia presents significant opportunities for social network usage growth in the next few years.
“With internet penetration still relatively low and mobile continuing to drive internet adoption in the key markets there, it will continue to be a hotspot for various digital activity growths in the next few years.”
