The 2018 Q3 Global Digital Statshot report trots out a plethora of changes in the past three months, be it in the domain of social or digital or broadband. And in addition, displays the earnestness in which Global village goes online. As of July 2018, the number of internet users worldwide has reached 4.1 billion. Interestingly, nearly 92% of them access the internet from their mobile.
This predominant view has been that Internet traffic doubles every three or four months. The role that Internet plays in communications, whether be it in terms of audience consciousness or bandwidth of networks, it is, unarguably, a fairly recent phenomenon.
With more than half of the world’s population online, about quarter of billion users stepped into ‘Online Shoes’. Again, with an upsurge of more than 20 per cent year-on-year, Africa was the one to witness the fastest growth rates.
More than 300 million people came online between July 2017 and July 2018, equating to an average of almost 10 new users every second.
The Smart, Savvy and Social League
Much of the growth in the number of internet users this year can be accredited to affordable smart-phones and data plans. The trend is resulting in a record number of mobile phone users worldwide. Reportedly, over two-thirds of the world’s 7.6 billion inhabitants possess a mobile phone as of now.
Apparently, more than half of the users today are growing fond of ‘smart’ devices too, so it provides a hypothetical comfortable-couch for people to enjoy a rich internet experience.
Social media practice grows rapidly as well, with more than 328 million new users adopting social media in the last 12 months. That’s an addition of almost 1 million new social media users, every day, globally. In July 2018, the total number of social media users reached 3.356 billion, globally. This translates into over 81% penetration of social media against the internet users population, worldwide.
Additionally, little over 3 billion or 92% of active social media users access their browsing share via mobile devices.
Google’s ongoing Consumer Barometer study offers a dramatic turn of events on people’s device preferences. Latest data suggests that internet users, globally, are almost five times more likely to resort to mobile phones rather than a computer whenever they go online.
Just 12% of global users report that they access the internet via a PC or a tablet. While 57% report that they access the internet, most often, via their smartphone.
Sums Up to A Billion Years?
The latest data from GlobalWebIndex states that the average user spends around 6 hours each day, stuck to the Internet. Now, that accounts for about one-third of a person’s schedule, where he’s awake.
To sum it up altogether, for all 4 billion of the world’s internet users, the time spent online in 2018 will stand at a whopping 1 billion years! Staggering, isn’t it?
However, this is not confined to just another “next billion” tell-tale!
Bolstering the internet facilities in developing economies will impact users everywhere, as companies like Google, Facebook, Alibaba etc strive to reach out to the users and address their needs through global products.
Facebook Tumbles, While YouTube Surges:
One of the most important findings in this quarter’s report relates to an unconvincing 20% drop in Facebook ad clicks. Facebook shows that a global user now clicks on a median of just eight adverts per month, which was, earlier, about 10 clicks about three months ago.
However, Facebook still dominates the social media landscape. With the company reporting 2.2 billion active users on its platform, it’s perhaps just a dent and not a crack on its stature!
On a quite fresh note, YouTube appears to be closing the gap with Social-media leviathan. In consonance with the latest statements, the number of YouTube users has grown to 1.9 billion active users, around the globe.
Key-Insights:
- Use of Voice Search Commands – About half of all internet users in India and China claim using voice interfaces in the past month. However, Indonesia positions itself as the top-honcho in global rankings, at 49 per cent.
- The World Cup effect – A staggering search trend for this quarter, that was the reason for all spikes and curves, is perhaps due to the explosion in queries relating to the recent FIFA World Cup. With global search volumes up to a massive 2,000 per cent this year, this surely contributed in oodles to data of the current quarter.
- eCommerce Activities – 92% of the world’s internet users visit an online retail store on the web (any device) in the last month, which was 91% three months back.
- Strong Growth Continues – The number of internet users worldwide grew by 8% YoY, mainly due to the strong adoption of the internet in Africa and South Asia.
