Study: Hongkongers spent almost 1 more hour online per day amid pandemic

Hongkongers spent more time online in 2020, watching a lot of broadcast and streamed TV programmes and using social media to entertain themselves, according to a study co-conducted by We Are Social and Hootsuite.

The study Digital 2021: Hong Kong is a comprehensive report covering digital, social and mobile use in Hong Kong. In 2020, time spent on the internet daily was 7 hours 15 minutes, up from 6 hours 16 minutes in 2019 as COVID-19 related social distancing measures led to Hong Kong’s internet users devoting over a day more per month.

Meanwhile, Hongkongers aged from 16 to 64 spent an average of 1 hour and 57 minutes a day on social media, making it the second most popular online activity after watching broadcast and streamed TV programmes (2 hours and 57 minutes a day).YouTube, WhatsApp and Facebook were the most used networks, but Snapchat gained popularity with figures published in January 2021 by parent company Snap showing its advertising reach in Hong Kong rose by 13% over the previous quarter.

Hong Kong also boasts a high penetration rate of mobile internet use. 92.3% of internet users leveraged mobile phones to go online and users aged 16 to 64 spent 3 hours and 36 minutes a day on the internet through their phones. Mobile phones' web traffic (47.3%) was higher than that of laptops and desktops (46.2%). Tablets only accounted for 6.5%. As for online content activities, watching online videos was the most popular (94.9%), followed by music streaming services (61.5%), online radio stations (42%), listening or watching podcasts (39.4%), and watching vlogs (34.6%). 

The study also covered e-commerce in Hong Kong. The majority (85.4%) of Hongkongers searched online for a product or service to buy recently, and almost three quarters (74.5%) visited an online retail site or store through any device. 
When it comes to e-commerce spend by categories, travel, mobility and accommodation topped the list as Hongkongers spent US$2.38 billion. Fashion and beauty came second (US$2 billion) followed by electronics and physical media (US$1.35billion). Spending on travel, mobility and accommodation declined significantly in 2020 but other categories enjoyed an impressive growth. 
Lastly, total digital adspend in 2020 was US$1.23 billion, and spending on digital search ads last year amounted to US$638.1 million. Digital adspend and social media adspend enjoyed the highest year-on-year growth last year.