- Google deep dived into the online behavior and app usage of YouTube users in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
- Half of all YouTube users in Southeast Asia are “YouTube Enthusiasts” who spend more than 10 hours per week on YouTube.
- These enthusiasts are also frequent, high-spending users of e-commerce, ride-hailing, and online streaming apps.
- Brands can use YouTube to reach highly engaged, high-value app users by tapping into their own data, signals, and consumers’ search intent.
Few regions in the world are more mobile-first than Southeast Asia (SEA). Consumers in Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines spend an average of four hours on mobile internet every day — that’s more time than both China (3.5 hours) and the U.S. (2.2 hours)1 — and it’s only going to keep growing.
One of the few things that rivals SEA users’ mobile-first mentality is their love of online video. Consider this: SEA’s YouTube users drive 20% of all video consumption around the world,2 and 83% of users in SEA watch online video daily.3 Even more, of the four hours they spend on their phones per day, about a third of that is spent on YouTube.2
There are three key drivers behind this growth: 1) cheaper smartphones and data; 2) larger, higher-resolution screens on mobile devices, smart TVs, and gaming consoles; and 3) local content and personalized content recommendations.
Because YouTube reaches so many people in SEA, YouTube Enthusiasts are an incredibly diverse audience. But they have something in common that’s especially notable for app marketers in APAC: they’re also heavy users of ride sharing, online streaming, and e-commerce services.
To dive even deeper into this behavior and understand which other activities users conducted on their mobiles, Google partnered with IPSOS for a study of 6,000 YouTube users across four southeast Southeast Asian countries: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.7 The study included online surveys submitted by 1,500 users from each country who were users of YouTube and at least one of three services: ride sharing, e-commerce, and online streaming (music and video).
Here’s what our research revealed:
SEA is filled with YouTube Enthusiasts
The biggest finding in our research was that half of all YouTube users in SEA spend more than 10 hours per week on YouTube. That’s 77 million aptly named “YouTube Enthusiasts” in SEA alone.
Because YouTube reaches so many people in SEA, YouTube Enthusiasts are an incredibly diverse audience. But they have something in common that’s especially notable for app marketers in APAC: they’re also heavy users of ride sharing, online streaming, and e-commerce services.
When we dove deeper into each vertical, we could see how much more valuable app users were in each country as well as reasons for their increased usage.
E-commerce apps and services
Compared to regular YouTube users, YouTube Enthusiasts in SEA make online purchases 1.6X more frequently and spend an average of 60% more overall.
Learn more about this audience of YouTube enthusiasts using the dropdown below:
Ride-hailing apps and services
Compared to regular YouTube users, YouTube Enthusiasts in SEA have a 16% higher adoption rate of ride-hailing apps and book 43% more rides per week.
Learn more about this audience of YouTube enthusiasts using the dropdown below:
Online streaming apps and services (video and music)
Compared to regular YouTube users, YouTube Enthusiasts in SEA are 87% more likely to subscribe to video-on-demand (VOD) services and 75% more likely to subscribe to music streaming services.
Learn more about this audience of YouTube enthusiasts using the dropdown below:
Finding and engaging YouTube Enthusiasts in SEA
Using the dropdown below, see how brands can connect with this huge audience of high-value app users by tapping into three things that are already available to them: data, search intent, and signals.
Online video is key to reaching SEA’s best app users
It’s clear that YouTube Enthusiasts aren’t just keen on online video—they spend more online, buy more often, take more rides, and watch and listen to more streaming content than regular app users. Beyond using YouTube as a branding play, brands can drive higher engagement and sales by developing video content that’s specifically geared towards these super-engaged, always-connected consumers.
Methodology
6,000 YouTube users in four SEA countries (Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines). This was a quantitative research of 1,500 consumers who completed online surveys in each of the four markets conducted during Q3 2017. Each surveyed consumer was a user of YouTube and at least one of the three services between ride sharing, e-commerce, and online streaming (music and video).
