Users prefer WhatsApp,
WeChat over Facebook,
says study
says study
An increasing number
of people are now using mobile messaging apps like WeChat and WhatsApp to
communicate with their friends rather than using social networking platforms
such as Facebook and Google+, according to GlobalWebIndex (GWI) Research. While
social networking is one of the fastest rising online activities — up 187%
globally and 242% in Asia Pacific region — the gap between users with accounts
and those actively using is significant.
GWI surveyed about
42,000 respondents in the Asia Pacific region, including 5,000 respondents in
India during the year. According to GWI, 83 Internet users had Facebook
accounts, but only 47% actively used the website. In India, 93% said they had a
Facebook account but only 48% had active usage. Also, the number of global
users using Facebook to message a friend has continued to decline from 512
million in Q1 2013 to 402 million in Q4 2013 to 313 million in Q3 2014.
About 28% of
respondents from India said they “logged in to see what’s happening without
posting/commenting on anything myself” on Facebook, Twitter (23%) and Google+
(21%).
At the same time,
number of people using mobile messaging services has increased from 446 million
in Q1 2013 to 538 million in Q4 2013 and 616 million in Q3 2014. Respondents
said they were not interested in using Facebook like before, they were bored or
generally spending less time on social networks as top reasons for using the
world’s largest social networking lesser.
According to GWI, the
top reasons for this surge in usage includes messaging apps being free (45%),
being quicker than using social networks or text messages to speak to people
(41%) and lots of friends using them (41%).
In Asia Pacific,
WeChat was the dominant messaging app (337 million), WhatsApp led the pack in
India. “Mobile messaging tools have experienced substantial growth during this
recent period, particularly amongst the younger generation. Social networks are
now being treated more passively, the number of people messaging friends on
social networks is now declining,” GlobalWebIndex Head of Trends Jason Mander
told reporters here.
People are now seeing
mobile messaging apps as a more efficient way to communicate, he added. “In the
last year, the Indian mobile messaging audience grew by 113%, we expect the
number of mobile messaging users to continue to grow in the coming quarters,”
he said.
He added that
smartphones are vital to Internet users in India, where 79% of the online
population own a smartphone. “The users of mobile messengers are young,
affluent and highly active online,” Mander said.
PTI