| Azlan Othman |
FACEBOOK is the most popular social media site in the Sultanate where the total number of monthly active Facebook users reached 410,000 of which 85 per cent is accessing it via mobile phone.
The percentage of Facebook profiles declared as male outnumbered female with 56 per cent male users compared to 44 per cent female users, according to the latest Digital, Social, Media 2018, Southeast Asia report by We Are Social and Hootsuite released recently.
On the contrary, there are 210,000 active monthly Instagram users with female users dominating with a share of 53 per cent compared to 47 per cent male users.
We Are Social and Hootsuite also said the total number of mobile connections stand at 534,400.
Mobile connections as a percentage to total population stand at 124 per cent. The total number of active social media users reached 410,000, or 95 per cent of the population. The total number of active users accessing social media via mobile is 350,000, or 81 per cent of the population.
‘Brunei’ was the top Google search engine query term last year, followed by ‘Facebook’ and ‘YouTube’.
There has also been an increase of 11 per cent in the number of Internet and active social media users in the country in January 2018 compared to the same period last year. Social media users who use mobile phone have also increased by six per cent.
Hootsuite said Southeast Asia is experiencing a rapid growth in Internet, digital, social media and mobile activity. With more than 370 million Internet users in January 2018 and double-digit growth in most segments and most countries of the region, the digital sector is booming and attracting a lot of interests.
Taken as a single bloc, Southeast Asia regroups a large population of digital users that take it to levels where it can stand the comparison with the leading global markets (US, EU, China and so on) or all of digital activities: Internet, social media, mobile and mobile social.
But it is the region’s growth numbers that are even more impressive, with high double digit growth in all segments. This growth has primarily been enabled in 2018 through the expansion of technological infrastructures that support Internet and mobile connections in Southeast Asia with Internet penetration of 58 per cent; social media penetration (55 per cent) and mobile connectivity of 141 per cent, the report said.
Such growth should continue on a similar trend for more years to come. The large and growing digital population should help sustain digital business expansion and keep on attracting more and more businesses online, providing new ways for marketing in Southeast Asia and enhancing the fast-growing Southeast Asia’s e-commerce sector, it added.
The post Facebook most popular social media platform in the Sultanate appeared first on Borneo Bulletin Online.