March 9 2019
It's probably not a surprise to most that social media has permeated every continent and most of the countries on Earth.
However, the totality of this permeation is stark. The smart phone has now over-taken, by a wide-margin, the choice of phone type across emerging economies.
More striking is the use of smartphones per age group for these countries. 90% of 18-29 year-old's in Vietnam reported using smart phones compared to just 67% of the total population that claimed to use smart phones. This indicates that smartphones are cheap enough to be ubiquitous, and it's consumer behavior that is limiting even wider-spread adoption.
Facebook and WhatsApp are reported to be the most popular apps in this study, which is interesting when comparing trends in America, which is showing a decline in Facebook usage in young people.
Lastly, most people don't have access to a computer or tablet.
What can we learn or take away from this?
First, that Facebook isn't going anywhere. If it becomes the point of entry to the internet to a generation of teenagers and young adults across a diverse group of emerging countries then its appetite to sell attention can be satisfied by all these new users.
Second, smartphones will only become more ubiquitous in emerging economics while tablets and desktop usage declines. This will inform how entire generations interact with technology and their real and digital worlds, which will be distinctly different than the American experience. A good comparison would be to consider how China uses technology differently, especially with regards to payments and transactions.
Third, if Facebook is everywhere in the emerging world and if everyone is using smartphones then perhaps the next evolution of mobile advertising will be aimed at emerging economies. If a large percentage of Facebook's future revenue will be derived from these new users, how will it go about capturing this opportunity?
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