Overview With more than 4 million people online in Singapore, the country boasts an internet penetration of 75%.

When compared to the top 5 Asian countries in terms of internet penetration, it ranks 5th. However, what is noteworthy here is that almost 80% of internet users in Singapore are online every day. This phenomenon is illustrated with the help of the figure below.

If put into absolute numbers it means that approximately 3.5 million Singapore residents are online every day. When observing the age demographics of internet users in Singapore, the younger generation obviously takes the lead. While this is common trend in most countries, what is interesting is the drop in number of internet users above 34 years of age (from 32.1% in 23-34 to 19.6% 35-44). Similar significant drop is observed in people above 44 years of age (from 19.6% in 35-44 to 8.7% in 45 and above).

Age demographics of internet users in Singapore

55+ 45-54 35-44 25-34 15-24 8.6% 8.7% 19.6% 32.1% 31.0%

If this is an indicator of how the internet is utilized by the top management of companies in Singapore (considering the traditional hierarchical structure in most Asian organizations), then either the younger

generation is taking over the top managerial positions or the existing senior management needs to seriously look into it. While most Asian markets such as Japan are just coming of age with Smartphones and tablets, Singapore already boasted of 40.1% penetration of Tablet users and 71.1% of Smartphone users in the population. The smartphone penetration of population in Singapore is highest as compared to any other country in the world.

Rise in tablet and Smartphone Users

40.1%

52.5%

Tablet Users
71.1% 72.3%

Smartphone Users

2012

2013

This is in line with the heavy use of mobile devices to connect with internet. This is also an indicator that companies need to respond to the changing medium of internet interaction among consumers and develop platforms which are either compatible both in desktop/laptop screens or create platforms dedicated to serve the need of these new mediums. Social Media Singaporeans are one of the most active users of social media. An analysis of web traffic done by Experian Hitwise reveals Singapore as the leader of the world in terms of time spent per session on Facebook. The activities are not limited to connecting with friends or updating news, but even online shopping is largely affected with social media. A survey results show that 68% of Singaporeans based their choice of restaurant on social media websites or online reviews. Similarly 67% Singaporeans agree that they would buy products in the travel, leisure and entertainment category, based on online recommendations. All of this has been made possible majorly with the rise of Smartphones and the use of social media in Smartphones. In Singapore, 33% people say that social media on mobile has provided them with a platform to voice their opinions, complaints and compliments and reviews about the product or service, possibly because of the instant availability.

The high involvement of Singaporeans in social media can be seen through the demographic profile, represented via the figure below.

Demographics of Social Media in Singapore

55+ 45-54 35-44 25-34 15-24 97.1% 97.3% 99.7% 92.5% 96.7% 99.1% 99.7%

84.6% 84.0% 88.0%

Female Male

This figure alone says a lot about Singaporeans social media participation. Some of the inferences that can be drawn are Female lead the social media in terms of participation in almost every age category. The difference is especially visible as we go 35 and higher in age. The least participation rate of 92.5% tells you how the ladies lead the show in social media. Singaporeans in the age category 25-34 average 99.4%. This is possibly the highest rate of participation in any age category anywhere else in the world. Female internet users age 55+ and male in the age category 25-34 have the highest participation rate at 99.7% The male participation drops 11 points after 34 while there is hardly any shift in female participation rates.

Singaporeans spend on an average 4.26 hours on social networking websites. However take the 15-24 age categories out of the equation, it drops to 3.5 hours. While participation rates may be slightly higher for 25-34 age category, 15-24 age category spends almost twice the time than them. The participation rates and time spent together gives the complete picture on which age category is leading the social media landscape in Singapore.

Average Time spent on Social Networking Sites in Singapore (in hours)

55+ 45-54 35-44 25-34 15-24 3.1 3.4 3.2 4.3 7.3

Lack of a homegrown social network means that the global giants of social networking rule the social media in Singapore. In terms of penetration of populations YouTube leads the social networking websites with 76% penetration followed by Facebook at 62.2% and Twitter at 49.4%. The other sites have a long way to go with number 4 social networking website LinkedIn at 10.1% and number 5 Pinterest at 1.7%. There has been a rise in photo sharing social networking sites such as Pinterest and Instagram, so expect these sites to grow quickly.

% Penetration of Population by Social Networking Sites in Singapore

76.0% 62.2% 49.4%

10.1% 1.7%

Youtube

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Pinterest

While the above figure puts YouTube at the lead, when time spent is taken into account, Facebook again becomes the leader. The active time spent on various social networking sites is displayed in the figure below.

Active hours spent per month on Social Networking Sites in Singapore

19.6

11.6 7.7 1.9 1.8

Facebook

Youtube

Twitter

Pinterest

LinkedIn

Clearly, there is some distance between the top 2 with Facebook at 19.6 hours and YouTube at 11.6 hours. The peculiarly low rank of LinkedIn, both in terms of penetration and time spent displays that for Singaporeans social media are more a way to connect with friends and socialize personally rather than professionally. Facebook Like a lot of other countries, Facebook is the leader of social networking sites in Singapore. It was helped by a highly active Singaporean population and lack of local social networks in Singapore. So unlike in countries such as Japan, Netherlands and Brazil, Facebook swiftly established itself in Singapore. A detailed analysis of social networking sites was done by Rock Publicity in 2012, some of the facebook findings are given in the table below. Active hours on Facebook per month 19.6 Average No. of Facebook Friends 319.5 Logged in Hours on Facebook per month 47.5 Average Facebook Shares per month (per user) 22.6

Average Session time 37.9 minutes Percentage of Facebook users via mobile 64.40%

With 3.2 million users, Facebook is the most prominent place for Singaporean social media users accounting for 68.1% of the total population. Also when speaking in terms of online population of Singapore, Facebook accounts for more than 75% of them. This makes social media users of Singapore the heaviest users of Facebook in Asia. The most significant statistic of all is the average session time which is 37.9 minutes. This makes them the most active users of Facebook in the world. While the world average of shares per month on Facebook is approximately 15, Singaporean shares one and a half times more.

The following figure gives us the age demographic of facebook users in Singapore.

Age demogrpahics of Facebook Users in Singapore

55+, 7% 45-54, 9% 13-17, 9%

18-24, 24%

35-44, 19%

25-34, 32%

People in the age category 25-34 are the most dominant group on facebook accounting for almost 1/3rd of the total facebook users. They are followed by 18-24 age category at 24% and 35-44 age category 19% respectively. YouTube Following Facebook is the second ranked social networking website, YouTube. Social media users of Singapore watch 151 videos every month as per the survey conducted by Rock Publicity. That accounts for 11.5 hours, almost half a day per month watching videos. The figure below splits the Singaporean YouTube users in different age category. As can be seen the use of YouTube is very evenly spread with almost all age categories accounting for 20% of the total YouTube users on an average. The only exception is the 55+ age category which accounts for only 8% of the total YouTube users in Singapore.

Age demogrpahics of Youtube users

55+, 8% 15-24, 21%

45-54, 20%

25-34, 25%

35-44, 26%

The following figure illustrates the time spent on YouTube by Singaporeans from different age categories. The youngest YouTube users of Singapore spend significantly more time on it than any other age category. The eldest category comes in second with 11.7 hours. When carefully observed one can detect a pattern here that the time spent on YouTube by Singaporean social media users reduces as we go up. The contraction is the most in 35-44 age category which spends 8.5 hours on YouTube and after that the time spent again increases as we go further up in 45-55 and 55+ age categories with average time spent 10.8 hours and 11.7 hours respectively.

Age demographics of time Spent on Youtube per month (in hours)

11.7 10.8 8.5 10.1 16.9

55+ 45-54 35-44 25-34 15-24

The 3,937,125 YouTube users represent a significant portion of Singaporean population. With 3 out of 4 Singaporeans having visited YouTube at least a month, one can safely say that YouTube has setup a strong fort in Singapore.

Twitter While Twitter may rank third in social networking sites in Singapore, it still manages to capture almost half the Singaporean population in its user base with 2,561,240 users. This is much higher than the world average which further orchestrates the high social media usage of Singaporeans. They beat the world average not just in terms of population penetration but also in terms of active hours spent on twitter with 7.7 hours per month. In terms of total usage as a city Singapore ranks 11th in the world. As far as access via mobile is concerned almost 60% of the twitter accounts in Singapore were accessed via mobile in 2012 and is expected to rise to 66% in 2013. The summary of twitter use in Singapore can be seen in the table below. Average Number of twitter followers 147 Average number of tweets per month per person 77 Active Hours Spent on Twitter 7.7 Logged in Hours on Twitter 40.6

Average number of twitter "favorites" per month 15.6

Average number of re-tweets per month 21.1

% of Singaporean Twitter users accessing via mobile 59.90%

When compared with world averages on twitter, Singaporean twitter users break the bar in more than one category. Other Social Networking Sites While there are many other social networking sites active in Singapore such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, and similar others, there is quite some distance to cover to make it to top 3. The number 3 ranked social networking site Twitter boasts of 50% of the population as its users, while LinkedIn has 10.1% of population as users. Photo sharing social networking sites such as Pinterest is also growing quickly but still represents a small portion of the Singaporean population. Summaries for LinkedIn and Pinterest are displayed through the table below, with the help of numbers provided by the survey results of Rock Publicity. Active Hours spent on LinkedIn 1.8 Logged in hours on LinkedIn 10.4

Total Users of LinkedIn 522,030

Average No. of LinkedIn connections 72.2

Average number of LinkedIn updates per month 6.6

Average number of groups user is member of 4.1

Total Users of Pinterest 96,750

Active Hours spent on Pinterest 1.9

Logged in hours on Pinterest 9.9

The given figure displays the multi network model of Singaporean social media users.

% of Social Media Users

10+, 13% 1--3, 20%

7--9, 26%

4--6, 41%

Almost half the users (41%) are part of at least 4 social networking websites. More than a quarter of Social media users are part of at least 7 social networking websites. This is an indicator of multi network behavior of social media in Singapore. Social Media Monitoring Tools Given below in the table are some of the social media monitoring tools which can be used in Singapore. Apart from these, one would also take help of international monitoring tools to track social media. Company name JamIQ ThoughtBuzz Platform JamIQ ThoughtBuzz Media type All All Website http://www.jamiq.com http://www.thoughtbuzz.net

Media Monitors

Brandtology

All

http://www.brandtology.com

Considering the lack of local social networking websites, and the dominance of foreign websites such as Facebook and YouTube, one can always use social media monitoring tools which are specifically aimed at these websites. One example of such tool would be social bakers especially in terms of Facebook and YouTube. Twitter itself has a lot of tools such as Twazzup, Twitscoop, TwiBuzz and similar others

Tips for Social Marketers Singapore is one of the more active users of social media in Asia. While this is a good thing for social marketers, the amount of activity means large amounts of data generated and frequent trends. Some of the things that social marketers need to keep in mind for Singapore are given below. Singaporean social media users are heavy users of Smartphone and tablets. Given the proximity with Japan, one should expect to see smartphone based social networks such as Line to come in soon. Buying decisions for Singaporean social media users are based heavily on social media reviews. While this is the case in most active social media countries, Singaporeans rely on it more than other countrys social media population. While the internet users are divided evenly among both genders, women use social media a lot more than men, especially older men. When choosing a target demographic this factor would need special consideration. While there is growing interest in other types of social networking websites, Facebook dominates this countrys social networking websites. Considering the heaviest users of Facebook are in Singapore, marketers should keep Facebook platform as their top priority to connect and promote. While twitter may rank third in social networking websites, Singaporeans still spend the longest time on twitter compared to any part of the world. So a presence on top 3 networks, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter should cover most of the social media network for social marketers for now. Having said that, 80% Social media users in Singapore are members of The older generation is more on YouTube compared to any other social networking site. Marketers aiming to catch the attention of this particular age group should aim at promoting on YouTube.

References Internet World Stats, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats3.htm ITS A SOCIAL WORLD Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where Its headed http://www.slideshare.net/ryangreenme/its-a-social-world-top-10-needtoknows-about-socialnetworking-and-where-its-headed Singapore ranks highest for mobile social media use in the world http://www.misasia.com/resource/internet/singapore-ranks-highest-for-mobile-social-media-use-in-the-world/ The State Of Social Media In Singapore, The 2012 Rock Publicity Singapore Social Media Study, 2012, http://rockpublicity.com/singapore-social-media-study/