Digital Future in Focus: Global Trends and Insights

Joe Nguyen, Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Comscore, Inc

Comscore measurement solutions for unduplicated multi-platform audiences, as well as validated advertising performance and effectiveness, help publishers, advertisers and agencies make sense of the digital landscape. Reporting on over 40 markets worldwide, Comscore has a unique perspective on the evolution of digital audiences, behaviours and advertising. This article features extracts of the presentation Digital Future in Focus: Global Trends and Insights which highlights key trends that have emerged globally and cites local examples to demonstrate the impact of changes to the online ecosystem.

Globalisation in the digital environment

As we have observed digital behaviours over more than 20 years, we find ourselves uniquely positioned to notice worldwide trends and country-specific nuances that have major impact on individual markets. Indeed, one key reflection is that this global scope is more significant than ever before. The proportion of Internet users outside the United States measured by Comscore has increased from 34% of the global desktop population to 89%. More than three-quarters of these desktop users are now located in the EMEA (33%) and Asia Pacific (45%) regions.

The expansion of Internet-enabled devices is undoubtedly the biggest catalyst for change within this time period. Consumer behaviours have evolved, creating usage patterns and peak time periods for smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. For the purposes of our most recent study, we calculated the percentage of each platform’s daily impressions by hour in the United Kingdom, concluding that desktop usage is distributed more evenly throughout the day, whilst smartphones and tablets generate more distinct peaks in the morning and evening. These changing consumption patterns have had a dramatic impact on the digital landscape, as demonstrated by the insights below.

Mobile is not replacing desktop. Instead, incremental time and audiences are added.

Perhaps surprisingly, despite the mobile revolution, desktop consumption is not in freefall. Instead, its role is evolving to best fit consumer activities. Alongside the rapid growth of smartphones and tablets, desktop audiences experienced incremental growth in every region, and in certain categories, the platform is thriving. For example, in Malaysia, desktop minutes in content categories such as news are decreasing with the rise of mobile devices, but desktop time is rising in more considered or open-ended activities such as travel and retail. The weight of usage on each platform also varies between demographics.

Mobile is therefore additive to overall time spent using digital devices. In Brazil for example, mobile minutes add +232% of digital time to the desktop baseline, which has itself remained almost unchanged year on year.

Mobile devices have not just influenced digital time, but audiences too. There is a growing number of users who go online only via mobile devices in a month, and since this segment of the population is particularly prevalent among younger demographics, this is a trend we can expect to continue.

Source: Comscore MMX Multi-Platform, June 2016, Canada, Brazil and Japan. Japan uses a census-based methodology for mobile measurement.

Demographics also show variances in platform selection

We have seen that the shift of category minutes between platforms can be governed by content being consumed, but it is important to note that demographic segments remain a key consideration when evaluating online behaviours. Average minutes per user on desktop and mobile platforms suggest older users are leaning more heavily on desktop, while in line with their growing mobile-only populations, younger users spend more time per person on mobile.

Digital video experiences further fragmentation

Source: Comscore Video Metrix, June 2016, Global

On a global level, younger users continue to account for the majority of desktop video views, but 55+ users consume more minutes per video, suggesting a greater number of long-form video for this demographic. Whilst the total number of videos consumed has continued to rise, the average duration has declined due to more widespread short-form content and the growth of video advertising. Interestingly, advertising minutes form a smaller percentage of younger users’ total video time than for older demographics, suggesting there may still be room for growth of monetisation.

Category monetisation is also uneven, and the examples from Argentina and Malaysia within our study show heavily monetised video within the newspapers category, but far lower shares versus content for lifestyles, portals, travel, and sports, suggesting that opportunities for advertisers may exist in these less cluttered environments.

Major impact born from app usage

Smartphone and tablet apps account for between 80 and 90 percent of mobile minutes in all markets studied within this research, and in many cases eclipse desktop time singlehandedly. The value for brands of achieving app success are clear to see, but the barriers to growth are substantial. Only a small number of users download any new apps a month, and large global players account for a comprehensive share of app audiences, making share of this market incredibly tough for new apps to gather.

Trends and key points

Trends and takeaways can be summarised in the 5 points below:

1. The evolution of digital platforms has led to polarised audiences and user behaviours across devices.
2. The shift to mobile varies in degree depending on demographics and usage. This leads to greater potential to target specific audiences and behaviours, but challenges in optimising advertising and content.
3. Online video is growing and diversifying. Monetisation is equally fragmented, and some areas and users could be under-represented.
4. Platform selection is based on a wealth of factors that brands can influence or benefit from.
5. Mobile apps are a highly competitive gateway to large share of consumer attention.

We hope that publishers, advertisers and agencies will take these into consideration when planning future strategies.

Download the full presentation Digital Future in Focus: Global Trends and Insights here.