EIGHT in 10 people in Spain use social media every day, and are connected for a total of two hours, according to the latest worldwide research into online habits.
Hootsuite and We Are Social have just released their 10th annual report, Digital 2021, which reveals that 4.2 billion people have at least one social media profile kept active – nearly six in 10 of the earth's inhabitants, or about 56.5% of the planet's population.
Unsurprisingly, last year, with its various lockdowns and restrictions on meeting people in person, social media use rose sharply – by 13% around the world, or 490 million new users.
In fact, 15 people register on a social media platform for the first time every second.
Digital 2021, given that it is an annual comparison, may not necessarily reflect a permanent or even long-term change in trends – with many workers temporarily laid off, family and friends unable to see each other and shops, bars, restaurants and leisure facilities shut or severely restricted, the amount of time a typical human spent in front of a screen of any size will have been much greater on average for 2020 than for 2019.
In Spain, nearly 43 million people use the internet – out of a population of 47 million – and spend an average of six hours and 11 minutes a day online.
A total of 80% use social media daily, for an average of two hours a day.
Across the board, around 45% of people on earth aged between 16 and 64 inclusive use social media for brand information, and around 40% use it for work or work-related factors.
In Spain, the most-used social media platform is WhatsApp, with 89.5% of surfers availing themselves of it daily.
YouTube is very close behind, with 89.3% of those with internet access using it every day.
Facebook is used daily by 79.2% of surfers, and Instagram by 69%.
Applications most often employed in Spain are messaging or chat (96%), social media applications (95%), and video and entertainment (81%).
A total of 57% of internet-users in Spain have made video-calls at least once, 53% have scanned QR codes, and 34% have used their phones to watch TV programmes.
According to Digital 2021, nearly 94% of internet-users go online via their mobile phones, and preferred browsers are Chrome (72%), Safari (14%) and FireFox (5%).
As for content, 95% of Spanish internet-users watch videos online, 62% listen to music via streaming and 46% listen to podcasts.
How does Spain compare with the rest of the world?
Worldwide, 2020 saw people spending an average of six hours and 54 minutes a day on the internet – a total of 4.66 billion, or almost six in 10, people on earth are surfers - of whom 63% use it to search for information, 56% to connect with friends and family, and 55% to keep up to date by browsing news and events.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com