Telenor Group’s research arm, Telenor Research, has released the results of a study on mobile phone use among 16-35 year olds. The study – conducted in Q4 2015 – was based on 5,600 respondents from Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan, Serbia, Hungary, Sweden and Norway.
The study discovered that 62-percent of Malaysian respondents valued mobile apps for communication over voice calls. This stands in stark contrast to the rest of the surveyed countries; which shows a preference for voice calls. Only 19-percent of Malaysians agreed with this opinion.
Malaysians are also constantly connected through their phones; with respondents using their mobile communication apps more than any other country – with 85-percent of them reporting a high daily use result. Conversely, Pakistan reported the smallest number of people who consider themselves to have a high daily use of mobile communications apps at only 19-percent.
WhatsApp proved to be the most popular messanging app among Malaysians, while other countries varied their choices. Thais prefer Line, and Serbians preferring to use Viber. In an odd twist of responses, it turns out that Swedes favour using email for communication.
SMS usage has been on a steady decline, with daily usage dropping from 88-percent in 2012 to 49-percent in 2015. Interestingly, daily social media posting has followed a similar trend, with the number of respondents peaking at 58-percent in 2014; and then dropping to 42-percent last year. Despite the reduction in number of daily social media postings, Facebook retained its popularity thanks to its in-built messaging function.
While the number of countries participating in the survey was limited, it served its purpose to provide the Telenor group with information about its customers.
“It is crucial to have surveys like this one looking at ‘Digital Frontrunners’ who can help forecast future industry trends,” said Bjørn Taale, Head of Research, Telenor Research. “Not only is this information beneficial in planning our digital services, it is also interesting to see the resemblance between nations as diverse as Thailand, Hungary, Pakistan or Norway. Just when we think that two nations may be following the same evolution, local nuances show that we are as unique as we are similar.”
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