Around the World: The digital lives and lifestyles of everyone in the world: Is “peak media” in sight, who watches the most influencer videos, and more

On today's podcast episode, we discuss when we might be approaching the consequential ceiling of “peak media”, which folks watch the most influencer videos, where smartphone time is still climbing, and entirely too much more. Tune in to the discussion with our Principal Analyst and host Bill Fisher, Principal Analyst Paul Briggs, Vice President of Research Jennifer Pearson, and Chief Research Officer at GWI Jason Mander.

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Episode Transcript:

Speaker 1 (00:00):

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Bill Fisher (00:22):

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Behind the Numbers Around the World, an eMarketer podcast made possible by TikTok. It's Monday, October the 28th. I'm your host, Bill Fisher, and it's my pleasure as it always is to welcome you all to Around the World. And this month, we're digging into our latest Global Media Intelligence Report.

(00:47):

Welcome, folks, to a Behind the Numbers show that takes you all around the world, looking at what various countries are doing in the worlds of commerce, media, and advertising. Each month, we have our Three in Three news recap, then we have the Roundtable, where my guests and I have an open discussion about the theme for today's show. And we finish things off with my devilish Recap Stats Quiz. Okay, so this month we will be looking at the 14th edition of the annual report that we affectionately refer to as GMI. More accurately, the Global Media Intelligence Report. And we have some amazing experts that played the biggest roles in putting this together. Let's meet them right away. First up, we have GWI's chief research officer, Jason Mander. Hello, Jason.

Jason Mander (01:36):

Hey, Bill. Thanks for having me.

Bill Fisher (01:38):

Thanks for joining us again. Next up, she's eMarketer's vice president of research. It's Jenny Pearson. Hi, Jenny.

Jennifer Pearson (01:46):

Hi. Thank you for having me.

Bill Fisher (01:47):

Thanks for making your debut on the Around the World show. And finally, he's a regular on Around the World and author of the GMI. He's our principal analyst for Canada. It's Paul Briggs. Hey, Paul.

Paul Briggs (01:58):

Hi, Bill. Good to be here.

Bill Fisher (02:00):

Good to have you again. Okay, before we get into this, Jason, I wonder if you could just give us your really quick synopsis and elevator pitch, if you will, of what the GMI actually is, what it's all about.

Jason Mander (02:11):

Sure. So GWI runs consumer research at scale. Each year, we speak to millions of people across more than 50 countries, asking them a wide range of questions about their digital lives and lifestyles, everything from their devices they're using to the social media they're consuming. Once a year, we get together with the folks at eMarketer as well as Publicis and Starcom, crunch the numbers that are needed for this report, which gives a quick overview snapshot of what people are doing across 49 of those countries. You can use it to see regional differences, how things are changing over time, and what the key stories are for media and ad campaigns.

Bill Fisher (02:48):

Thanks very much. It's an amazing piece of research. I look forward to it coming out every year. Okay, we are going to get right into that in a minute, but before we do, let's have today's culture shock. This is where I take you to various countries around the world and give you some cultural facts or introduce you to some culturally-specific norms. And we are in Finland this month, where small talk doesn't exist.

(03:13):

Yes. Apparently, kids only learn this when they learn to speak English or another language, where inane conversation about nothing in particular is a thing. One of the country's national sayings translates as silence is golden, talking is silver. Whatever that means. If you were to ask a Finn, "Hey, how are you?" You're going to get a full and very factual response because they're going to take it as a serious question. So be prepared. It could take some time. And I should add this was all verified by our resident Finn, Jasmine Enberg. She's our-

Jennifer Pearson (03:44):

[inaudible 00:03:44].

Bill Fisher (03:43):

... social media supremo. I didn't believe it, so I wanted to check, and she swears this is true. Anyone want to engage in some small talk about this? No. Good. We've all got Finnish blood in us. Excellent. That's exactly the way I like it. Superb.

Jennifer Pearson (04:00):

[inaudible 00:04:00].

Bill Fisher (04:00):

Couldn't have scripted that any better. Okay. Anyway, it's time for our Three in Three segment now. This usually involves me introducing three new stories, one to each guest, and we cover each one in a minute. But this time out, given it's a very special edition of the show, I'm going to give each of my guests one minute to introduce their most interesting takeaway from this year's GMI. So I'm going to give each guest one minute of time.

(04:27):

And Paul, I'm going to ask you to go first as the most tenured person on this podcast. So my timer is set to a minute. What have you got for us?

Paul Briggs (04:37):

Yeah, so I think we covered this in the global report, but the lead takeaway from my point of view is the fact that we've reached peak media. So what does that mean? It really means that across a variety of formats and devices, the time spent with those devices and those activities has reached the ceiling. In fact, what we saw in 2023, it seemed to be a peak, and then we saw a little bit of a clawback in 2024's data. So nothing too drastic, but a little bit of a clawback. So that idea of a ceiling being reached, I think, is one we cover in great detail in this report.

Bill Fisher (05:13):

Very good. And well within the minute. I like that as well. Okay, Jenny. I'm going to reset the timer for you. You have one minute. What's your main takeaway?

Jennifer Pearson (05:21):

My main takeaway is a new data set that we were gifted from GWI about watching influencer videos and vlogs. That's a new question in this year's report and one that I think shows some really great and interesting data.

(05:34):

My favorite data point is that over 50% of those in the Philippines have watched an influencer video or vlog in the past seven days. That is above and beyond higher than any other country in this data set, also far and above the regional average for some. North America is about 18% as a regional average just for context here. Latin America is always pretty high. For this data point, it's 26%. So a big outlier in the Philippines, so interesting. But then I'm looking forward to digging into that further as we talk more here.

Bill Fisher (06:10):

So am I. Thanks for that. And bang on a minute. Well done. And finally, resetting the timer for you, Jason. One minute. What's your key take?

Jason Mander (06:20):

There's so many things I could choose from, but I'm going to make it personal. I looked at the time spent data for Western Europe because I am a Brit, and it tells me that in the last five years, in a typical day people are spending 38 minutes more per day on mobile than they used to. Put that another way, across a typical year, I would be spending an extra 13,870 minutes on my mobile, which is about 231 hours. And also, according to the data, 60 of those additional hours would be on social media. And I have to say based on my own Instagram and TikTok habits, that rings very true.

Bill Fisher (06:57):

A man after my own heart. I'm a TikTok addict. Happy to admit it. Okay, fantastic. Well, that wraps up our Three in Three for this month.

(07:10):

Now, it's time for the main part of the show, what we call the Roundtable. So this is where we dig a little bit deeper into the report. We'll build on some of the highlights we've just heard about. We might talk about a few other interesting tidbits as well, but let's start at the top.

(07:25):

Paul, you introduced this idea of time spent hitting something of a ceiling. You gave us your really top-level take. What's driving this, and why is this the story this year and it wasn't in previous years?

Paul Briggs (07:41):

Yeah, I think a few things are happening. We did see a few years ago, there was a pandemic bump in digital media time and media time overall as people spent more times in their home. Over the last few years, we've seen that come down to pre-pandemic norms. I think we're at a point now where increased variety of options is a real factor. So they might fragment their time across more activities and more devices, and I think that's also a dynamic that we're seeing in the data.

(08:10):

But overall, I think... And the only format that really didn't move, it was pretty flat year over year on a global basis, was mobile time. So we see that as probably at a ceiling. Probably won't gain too much or lose too much in the years ahead. But with most others, I think it's that near ceiling or a little bit past the ceiling, and now we're seeing a bit of a decline. I think it's people choosing to turn away from devices in a lot of cases as well to choose something that's more traditional, like going for a walk or walking the dog or what have you. So that was a key takeaway that we saw in terms of the time spent figures in the GMI this year.

Bill Fisher (08:52):

But interesting you talk about mobile time coming down because it sounds like, Jason, in Great Britain, the opposite is happening. Why is that?

Jason Mander (09:02):

Well, I was looking over five years. It's true that between last year and this, in not all countries have we seen mobile going up. In some, it has actually fallen. There are still some countries where it's climbing. I guess I agree with all the types of gains we used to see for mobile, where every year it was pushing up, really significantly are probably gone. And now, it would be much more modest growth or stability. I mean, after all, there are only so many hours in the day. And lot of those hours are already taken up with devices, so it can't grow too much more.

Bill Fisher (09:35):

And in terms of devices, I think there was another general finding in your global roundup, Paul, about smart TV ownership being up this year as well. Is that an interesting trend worth digging into?

Paul Briggs (09:50):

Yeah, so I think one key part of the data set is ownership metrics across a range of devices, including everything from VR headsets to gaming consoles, et cetera, et cetera, smartphones. And one of those key devices is smart TVs. So the majority of smart TVs that are shipped around the world, or TVs that are shipped around the world these days, come with built-in internet connectivity, so that fact is leading to greater adoption around the world.

(10:17):

So in every region except Latin America, we saw growth in smart TV ownership pushing north of 50%. I mean, Latin America is the world leader. It's north of 60%. And it declined slightly last year, but it is a leader by such a margin that it's not really alarming. So we're just seeing that have big implications because easy access to the internet on the biggest screen in the home allows much more easy consumption of streaming services of things like YouTube and other apps on your TV that weren't available when TVs were dumb.

Bill Fisher (10:53):

Is that in any way influencing this influence of vlogger uptake that you spoke about, Jenny, or is that across all screens still?

Jennifer Pearson (11:04):

Yeah, that's across all screens, but I do think those are correlated for sure. I think a lot of the influencer content is accessed through YouTube. And it could be on a smart TV, but also on many other devices. So it is, as Paul noted, really fragmented. But then yes, I think that influencer videos are ubiquitous within the YouTube platform, within other social sites, so it's second nature that it's part of smart TV also.

Bill Fisher (11:34):

I don't know if we can ascertain this from the data. Is there a link between online time spent and social media adoption? Because this seems to be more and more influential social media, right?

Paul Briggs (11:45):

Yeah, so I think... So the three main buckets of data, just a little bit of a background, time spent with a given media is one. Device ownership, which we've covered, is another one. And then it's adoption of certain types of media. So you mentioned... So social media and messaging has an adoption rate based on the number of services that people use. So that is very much something that we can correlate the time spent as well, and we do see relationships between the amount of adoption of a certain type of activity and the time people spend with it.

Jennifer Pearson (12:18):

Also some really interesting regional differences in adoption and that time spent. But I don't know if we want to get into that right now.

Bill Fisher (12:25):

I think we should if we could. I'd love to hear about that.

Jennifer Pearson (12:29):

Yeah. I honed in on... So interesting in Latin America just the number of increased time spent on socials, but also the number of messaging services and social sites used were just so much higher than other regions. I don't know if Paul or Jason, you had saw that in your research as well.

Jason Mander (12:48):

Yeah, I mean globally it's now 10%. So one in 10 of the people that we speak to that are using 11 or more different social media or messaging services, which is mind-blowing. And when you think about the cumulative time on each, you can start to understand how people are spending one, two, or more hours per day. It does vary regionally. That can be influenced by the services that are available, but also how culturally-ingrained certain activities have become. So things like social commerce, much more ingrained within messaging and social apps in Asia, for example. The age profile of populations can also have an influence. That helps to explain why LATAM is often so far ahead. Generally speaking, it's millennials who are urban and high income who are using the highest number of messaging or social services.

Paul Briggs (13:40):

Yeah, you mentioned that age breakout and how important the median age of a population is and how that influences the type of behaviors they exhibit. The other piece of information that we pulled into this year's look at the data was international monetary fund per capita, GDP per capita data, so the relative wealth of countries. And we did see a correlation between, especially in that device ownership category, the relative wealth of a country and its propensity to have a high ownership rate of those nice-to-have digital devices. So we tried to pull in a variety of data, not only median age, but also relative wealth of countries to add a lens to what's behind the data.

Jason Mander (14:25):

Yeah, it makes total sense when you look at the breakdown of the countries. So it's places like US, Spain, Italy, Norway, UK that are the most likely to own those smart, slightly nice-to-have devices. It's in parts of Asia in particular where we see the other end of the spectrum, where ownership is lowest. If I can fly the flag for the UK for a second, we are the top country in the world for tablets, smart TVs, games consoles, smart home products, and smart watches. So there we go.

Bill Fisher (14:52):

Wow. Always happy for you to fly the flag for the UK.

Paul Briggs (14:56):

Another key point that we should mention here, and we do this every year on this podcast and in the written report, is the US number for TV consumption is so much higher than the global average, and it just speaks... Even relative to a neighboring country like Canada, it's like an hour more per day spending time with TV in the US than it would be in Canada. And that gap, especially if you compare that US number of TV consumption to other regions, that gap gets even larger. So it's a finding that we see every year. It speaks to the variety of content that's available to US consumers. And you know what? We're also seeing that trend happen in online streaming of content as well. So Americans love their content, and they'll go to their TV or their computer or phone to get it.

Bill Fisher (15:48):

Yeah. I just want to come back to the Philippines for a minute because just remind me, Jenny. The Philippines has the highest uptake of people following vloggers or something. Is that right?

Jennifer Pearson (15:59):

Right, watching influencer videos or vlogs in the past week. Right.

Bill Fisher (16:03):

Yeah. So that kind of stuff interests me. Have we seen other countries following, or is Philippines a real outlier?

Jennifer Pearson (16:14):

I would say for this particular activity, this is an outlier, although relatively high also in Asia, Southeast Asia in particular, seeing high viewing influencer videos. And that could be, to Jason's point earlier, a younger audience and then also just so ingrained in the consumption habits, whether it's mostly on a device in this case in those regions. It's also relatively high in Latin America. We also have younger audiences, or skew younger in those regions as well, so it does go hand in hand with that audience.

Bill Fisher (16:49):

Okay, so lots of really interesting stuff here. I love hearing about the GMI. I love doing this podcast every year. This year's no different. Clients should definitely download this thing when it goes live on the 30th of the month. Just in time for Halloween.

(17:05):

But it's time now to move on to my favorite bit of the show. It's the Recap Stats Quiz. This month, I've delved into the GMI rankings and I've used those to put together three multi-choice questions for my three guests. They're going to go head to head. There's no prize. I'm afraid Stuart has refused the budget again, so it's bragging rights only. But it's all in good fun, and I don't expect you to get these right. I picked the most obscure questions, but anyway, let's see how we go.

(17:41):

Okay, we are in Japan first, where just 37% of people listen to radio. That's the lowest proportion of all 49 countries that were tracked. The first radio broadcast in Japan happened on March the 22nd, 1925. Which of the following statements is false? A, March the 22nd is now Broadcasting Memorial Day in Japan; B, at the time, radio was referred to as wireless telephone listening; or C, the first radio broadcast was a radio drama called Tanko no naka, which translates as In a Coal Mine. So which of these facts is false, Broadcasting Memorial Day; wireless telephone listening; or the radio drama, In a Coal Mine? Okay, we've got answers from Jenny and Paul. Jason, what are you going to give me?

Jason Mander (18:42):

See, you are so specific. It's a weird one to make up. So on that basis, I'm going to say B.

Bill Fisher (18:48):

You're going to go for B. Okay, interesting. We've got different answers from each of you. If you'd have said March 21st is now Broadcasting Memorial Day, you'd have been wrong because it is. It's not a public holiday or anything, but it is known as Broadcasting Memorial Day in Japan. Radio was originally called wireless telephone listening as well, interestingly. And if you search up the first broadcast in Japan, it sounds like a guy who is speaking to somebody on a telephone who's hard of hearing. Just look that up. It is quite interesting.

(19:20):

So the correct answer is C. The first broadcast was not a drama called Tanko no naka. However, it was the first ever radio drama to be broadcast in Japan. It just happened a little bit later on August the 13th that year.

Jennifer Pearson (19:34):

Oh.

Bill Fisher (19:35):

So let me just-

Jennifer Pearson (19:36):

That was the tough one.

Bill Fisher (19:37):

That was hard, wasn't it? Yeah, no, they don't-

Jennifer Pearson (19:37):

Yes.

Bill Fisher (19:43):

... get any easier. Okay, so we have an early leader, and it's Paul Briggs. How does that feel, Paul?

Paul Briggs (19:47):

It feels good. I'm usually not in this position, so. But you know what? Regarding that answer, you know what? When it comes to this stuff, I think content drives a lot of behavior. So I thought maybe that was why I gravitated towards that one.

Bill Fisher (20:01):

Good logic. Well done. Okay, question two. And we're in Portugal next, where 96% watch live TV. That's the largest proportion of anywhere in the world. They might watch more of it in the US, but in terms of the user base, it's highest in Portugal. But what is the longest-running TV show in the country? We have A, Telejornal. We have B, Programa Silvio Santos. Apologizing for my accent here. It's terrible. Or C, Telediario. Telejornal-

Jennifer Pearson (20:37):

I thought you'd give us a description of each.

Bill Fisher (20:41):

I'll give you a description-

Jennifer Pearson (20:42):

That'd be really nice.

Bill Fisher (20:43):

Yeah, when I give the answers, I'll give you the description.

Jennifer Pearson (20:46):

Okay.

Bill Fisher (20:46):

So we've got A, Telejornal; B, Programa Silvio Santos; or C, Telediario. What do you think, Jason?

Jason Mander (20:55):

I'm not pronouncing those again, so I'm just going to plonk for A.

Bill Fisher (20:58):

A. Okay. And that's what you said, Paul. Okay, the answers are in. If you'd said C, Telediario, you'd have been incorrect. This is Spain's flagship newscast. It's been running since 1957 and it's the longest-running of the three that I mentioned. B, Programa Silvio Santos, is also incorrect. This is the longest-running TV show hosted by the same person. It's Brazilian and it's been running since 1963, and it's still going. So well done, Silvio Santos. The correct answer is Telejornal. This is Portugal's flagship newscast. It's been running since the 18th of October, 1959, so a couple of years after Spain's Telediario.

(21:50):

Okay, so we had two people get that right, but Paul is maintaining his lead because he was correct. He is currently leading with two. Jason, catching up on one. Jenny yet to get off the mark, but we have another question. Let's see how you do with this one.

Jennifer Pearson (22:06):

Okay. [inaudible 00:22:07].

Bill Fisher (22:07):

Finally, we're in India, where 16% of the population use 11 or more digital services. I think you mentioned in the main section there, Jason. This is ahead of everyone else around the world. That 16% obviously likely has some pretty good disposable income. And given the price of digital services in India, it's no surprise that they subscribe and use so many.

(22:31):

For example, a Netflix subscription in India costs how much? This was as of February this year for a basic package that isn't ad-supported according to Visual Capitalist. Annual options are, they're all in US dollars, $5.98, $3.38, or $2.82. How much does a Netflix subscription in India cost? A, 5.98; B, 3.38; or C, 2.82. Okay. Jenny and Paul's answers are in. What you going to go for, Jason?

Jason Mander (23:11):

Straight down the middle. B, 3.38.

Bill Fisher (23:15):

Okay. The answers are in. If you'd have said $2.82, you would've been incorrect. That's the cheapest in the world, and it's next door in Pakistan. $3.38 is also incorrect. This is the price in Turkey. That's the cheapest subscription outside the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The correct answer is $5.98, and pretty cheap when you compare that with Switzerland, the most expensive, where it's $21.48. Ouch. And of course, in the US, it's $15.49.

Jennifer Pearson (23:51):

Are we talking with ads?

Bill Fisher (23:51):

Without ads.

Jennifer Pearson (23:53):

Oh, it's without ads.

Bill Fisher (23:54):

Without ads. Yeah.

Speaker X (23:57):

[inaudible 00:23:57].

Bill Fisher (23:57):

Okay. Totting up the scores. Well done, Jenny. You did get off the mark.

Jennifer Pearson (24:02):

Woo-hoo.

Bill Fisher (24:04):

Jason, just unable to reel Paul in at the end there, so we do have a winner. And the winner of my quiz this week is Paul. Well done, Paul. Fantastic.

Jennifer Pearson (24:14):

Yay.

Paul Briggs (24:15):

Yeah, great. My first victory, I think.

Bill Fisher (24:17):

Absolutely superb. Now, I always have a tie break just in case of a tie. Should we have the tie break question?

Jason Mander (24:23):

Yeah.

Jennifer Pearson (24:23):

Sure.

Jason Mander (24:23):

Why not?

Bill Fisher (24:24):

Why not? So the tie break is open-ended. It's a number. I'm just looking for a number. You can just shout out the numbers for this.

(24:30):

So we heard that Japan has the lowest number of radio listeners, but these listeners also spend the least amount of time listening. So among the population, what does the average, or how long, sorry, does the average person in Japan spend listening to the radio each day in minutes?

Jason Mander (24:47):

34.

Paul Briggs (24:49):

I'll say 45.

Jennifer Pearson (24:51):

I'll go less. 20.

Bill Fisher (24:53):

Mm, I've got to do some maths. It's okay. It's easy maths. Jenny got that right, so you can have a little victory there. It's actually 26 minutes, so you were very close. You can win the tie break. Paul wins the quiz proper. Sorry, Jason. You don't win anything, but you're a great competitor.

Paul Briggs (25:10):

Bill, it's good that you brought that up because it brings to my attention, I recall now, that when looking at Japan, their time spent with media was way lower than a lot of countries in the world. And even their adoption of activities were much lower. It's a unique country in that respect in terms of media behaviors, so this question at the end was a good underlining of that point.

Bill Fisher (25:30):

Good. Glad to hear it. I like to think that my questions have some use.

(25:35):

Okay, well, unfortunately, it is time to end today's show. It was a really good show, and we end with a winner or two winners. Three winners. You're all winners. So congratulations all of you. Jason, thank you very much for joining us from GWI. I thanks for joining the show.

Jason Mander (25:51):

Thanks. Pleasure as always.

Bill Fisher (25:52):

Jenny, thank you very much for your superb debut on Around the World.

Jennifer Pearson (25:56):

Thank you.

Bill Fisher (25:57):

And Paul, thanks as ever and congratulations for winning, I think, your first quiz ever.

Paul Briggs (26:01):

Thanks a lot.

Bill Fisher (26:02):

And thanks to all of you for listening in today to Around the World, an eMarketer podcast made possible by TikTok. Tune in tomorrow for the daily show hosted by Marcus. If you want to ask us any questions, you can of course email us at podcast@emarketer.com. I hope to see all of you next month for another edition of Behind the Numbers Around the World, where there will be no small talk, just big, juicy, real talk. Bye for now.

Speaker 1 (26:38):

On November 1st, eMarketer is hosting a virtual summit. You can learn all about the top trends of 2025 with a keynote from analysts Sarah Marzano and Evelyn Mitchell-Wolf, panels hosted by analysts Kelsey Voss and Yory Wurmser, and featuring executives from top brands. All of this starts at 11:30 AM Eastern on November 1st, and it's hosted by eMarketer's Vice President of Content Suzy Davidkhanian and Senior Director of Client Briefings Jeremy Goldman. Use the link in the show notes to register today.