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One of the defining phenomena of the present times reshaping the world as we
know it, is the worldwide accessibility to the internet. The lovechild of the World Wide
Web is social media, which comes in many forms, including blogs, forums, business
networks, photo-sharing platforms, social gaming, microblogs, chat apps, and last but
not least social networks. The power of social networking is such that, the number of
worldwide users is expected to reach some 2.5 billion by 2018, around a third of Earths
entire population. An estimated half a billion of these users is expected to be from China
alone and approximately a quarter of a million from India. The region with the highest
penetration rate of social networks is North America, where around 60 percent of the
population has at least one social account. As of 2015, over 70 percent of the United
States population had a social networking profile.
Leading social networks usually boast a high number of user accounts or strong
user engagement metrics. For example, Facebook is the only social network having
surpassed the 1 billion monthly active user mark and has, as of 2015, almost 1.5 billion
MAU worldwide. Shortly after its launch, relative newcomer Pinterest was the fastest
independent website in history to reach more than 10 million monthly unique visitors,
but, as of 2015, it is still behind other strong players, such as photo-sharing social
network Instagram or microblogging platform Tumblr.
Despite the ubiquity of social networks, market potential is still increasing, as not
only user figures, but also user engagement continues to grow. The average daily time
spent on social networks by users in Argentina and Philippines was more than four
hours, while those in the United States clocked in at almost three hours per day. On
average, global internet users spend some 101.4 minutes per day surfing social
networks. This prompts worldwide brands and their marketers to use that time and
screen space to promote various products and services via social media marketing or
social advertising.
Recently, social networking has demonstrated a clear shift towards mobile
platforms. Smartphone and tablet apps as well as mobile web access have facilitated
Twitters constant presence. In addition they have heightened the profile of locationbased services like Foursquare and enabled users to comfortably access visual blogging
sites including Tumblr and Pinterest via tablet. But the undeniable leader of mobile
social networking is, once again, Facebook. As of the first quarter of 2015, some 580
million Facebook users accessed the social network exclusively via mobile device, up
from 341 million users in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Furthermore,
according to industry experts, in a few years most interactions on Facebook will be
conducted from a mobile device.
Not long ago, the Philippines were labeled as the Social Networking Capital of
the World. Its not very surprising as Filipinos, recognized as one of the most active
users of social networking sites, make use of popular platforms such as Facebook and
Twitter for a variety of purposes beyond mere entertainment and social networking
per se.
While online social networking sites influence much of the digital marketing
trends in the Philippines, other web-based activities and platforms are now beginning to
shape the countrys digital marketplace. The impact of the latest trends in mobile and
search, e-commerce, web usage, online games and video among others are indicative of
the evolving digital future of the Philippines.
The following digital trends are seen to be creating more avenues and
opportunities for brands and businesses to gain more reach.
1. Growth of Internet Users in the Philippines
In the whole Southeast Asian region the Philippines Internet audience has the
fastest growth, recording an increase of 22% since March of 2012. With more and more
Filipinos gaining access to the Internet and personal computers, it is expected that the
number of Internet users will boom from 33 million in 2013 to 41 million this year. This
establishes the fact that the number of Internet users in the Philippines grows at a much
higher speed than other markets.
Atop an expanding pool of reachable audience, Filipino Internet users spend a
noteable average of 16.4 hours online everyday one of the highest in Southeast Asia.
This entails better engagement and access to your Internet audience.
2. Young Filipinos Drive Growth of Internet Users
Much of Internet penetration among consumers hit the younger age bracket. In
the Philippines, 40% of the Internet market is comprised of 15-24 year olds, 27% is
made up of 25-34 year olds while 35 year olds and older composes the remaining 31%.
Internet users under 35 are also heavier web users recording 16.4% of average
usage as compared with those aged over 35 with an average usage of 16%.
Retail
With the emergence of local and national online retail shops, the Filipino
audience is steadily getting hooked. At an average, the Filipino user spends 17.4 minutes
in scouring online retail shops that reach 53.3% of Filipino Internet users.
News/Information
The average Filipino spends 25.9 minutes surfing the web for news and
information, with an average reach of 50% for news channels. On the other hand, blogs
that feature relevant news get an 49.7% reach with Filipinos spending 14.4 minutes per
visit.
Travel
While its relatively lower than retail and information, the travel category still
sees healthy traffic with a reach of 27.8% of Filipino Internet users spending 15.7
minutes on travel sites such as airlines, travel agents and hotels/resorts.
5. User privacy concerns will hit an all-time high. After another year full of high-profile
security breaches (like the one with Ashley Madison), user concerns over privacy are
going to hit an all-time high. Snapchats explosive popularity is, in part, due to user
demand for a more private, secure method of communication and engagement.
Facebook is introducing more privacy awareness tools for its users, and its smart to do
so, because as tension continues to rise, only platforms which offer a degree of privacy
and security will continue to thrive. For advertisers, that might mean backing off of
sometimes-intrusive forms of advertising.
6. Competition for organic visibility will increase. Finally, as the ROI of social media
marketing becomes more established and social marketing itself becomes more
accessible for a wider range of businesses, there will be a greater level of competition for
organic visibility. Already, Facebook is throttling organic visibility to force people to buy
advertising, and as more businesses emerge in the market, that throttle will only
increase, and among more social media channels. The cost of advertising, too, is set to
rise over the course of the next year.
7. Fewer small platforms will emerge. For the last several years, weve seen at least a few
dozen new social media platforms rise up and either blink out of existence just as
quickly or settle in as a middle-of-the-road platform that never gets more attention but
never really dies out. This past year, the trend has changedplatforms have tended to
skyrocket in popularity to stand on their own, get enough attention to be acquired by
one of the big three (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn), or die a quick death. In 2016, I
expect well see fewer small platforms as the big players race to gobble up the promising
small fry, meaning youll have to worry about fewer up-and-coming opportunities.
These trends will permeate the landscape of social media marketing, across multiple
platforms and of course many audiences. Already, you can see platforms like Facebook
and Twitter rushing toward these achievements at an alarming pace, but its the
companies who adapt to these changes who stand to benefit the most.