The changing social media landscape

Jason Mander, Head of Trends for Global Web Index, a London-based global research firm, laid the groundwork about the social media landscape at the Big Data for Media conference in London on May 8, sponsored by World Newsmedia Network and Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 

GWI's social media research surveys 170 million Internet users four times per year in 32 countries, or 89 percent of the Internet population.

The study has found that Indonesia is the world's most active active Facebook and Twitter market, while China is the world's most active e-commerce market.

"Often countries with lowest internet penetration shouldn't be disregarded. Often their audience is the most engaged one," Mander says, adding that these markets represent a huge opportunity for marketers and publishers online.

Despite its much-publicized recent decreases in active usership, especially among the young, FB is still on the top of the charts: more members than anyone else, more visitors than anyone else, he says.

Those social media platforms with rising active usership in the past six months include Changes in Instagram, Tumbler, and Pinterest, he said.

While it unclear exactly the reasons for the social media landscape changes, Mander says there is a sense of social media fatigue, and social media users are becoming more passive, using Facebook as more of an email box rather than a place to spend time, hang out, converse and share. Part of this phenomenon is caused by the shift from desktop/laptop social media use to mobile. Less time is spent on Facebook sessions on mobile, likely because of the size of the screen, and the places where users are posting...during a free moment, for example.

Some of the fastest growing social platforms include Snapchat (37 million users) in the past six months. Best results in westernized most developed markets: Australia, US, UK. However, Snapchat pales by comparison to Wechat (408 million) much bigger in terms of users (China). Mander pointed out that western media tends to get more publicity, but cautions that other chat platforms, especially in India and China, has far more reach.

Mander pointed to some challenges in tabulating social media trends, including:
- The growth of device sharing per household. This makes it difficult to identify just how many social media platform users there are, as these users are identified by one device.
- The proliferation of VPNs (virtual private networks), as a major social gateway. 416 m (28 percent) of the social platform-using population use VPNs, which allows them to stay anonymous, and get you to website that are blocked in your own country (YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, Guardian, BBC website) in countries like China where accessing these sites is not allowed.