Global Media Intelligence 2019: Spain

Key Features

Most internet users in Spain engage with a wide range of digital devices—even new options like smart-home products are seeing solid adoption.

• More than 97% of internet users ages 16 to 64 in Spain owned a smartphone in H1 2019, according to GlobalWebIndex. The share who owned a desktop or laptop PC was 10 percentage points lower, at 87.2%. But—as in most advanced economies—the average time spent each day with larger screens was greater than time spent with mobile phones, at averages of 3 hours, 6 minutes (3:06) and 2:28, respectively.
• Tablets likely contributed significantly to the nonmobile time. Spain recorded tablet penetration of 58.5% in H1 2018, and that share grew slightly to 59.4% this year. Female internet users were marginally more likely than males to own a tablet, PC or smartphone.
• Usage of smartwatches and smart wristbands had already passed 12% in H1 2018, and both gained a few percentage points this year, reaching ownership rates of 14.4% and 17.1%, respectively. The predominantly urban survey sample may be partly responsible for these high percentages, though (see note below).
• During the same period, smart TVs also attracted new users; in H1 2019, 48.2% of the respondents in the survey owned an internet-enabled TV.
• Notwithstanding the widespread usage of smart TVs, 24.3% of respondents also owned a TV streaming stick or similar device. In the most affluent households, that share was more than 31%.
• More than half (50.3%) of males polled, and 42.2% of females, owned a game console. Penetration was above average among internet users ages 16 to 44, and much lower (25.0%) among those 55 to 64.
• Overall, 8.2% of respondents said they owned a smart-home device in H1 2019. This category includes products such as energy monitors that enable homeowners to keep track of their gas/electricity consumption and adjust internal temperatures remotely. To date, these kinds of items are more popular among internet users ages 16 to 34 and those living in the top 25% of households, ranked by income. In both groups, ownership of smart-home products was already in the double digits.