Digital 2020 Report Shows How Digital Behaviours Have Changed In Lockdown

Apr. 23, 2020

We Are Social, the socially-led creative agency and Hootsuite, the global leader in social media management, have released Digital 2020: April Global Statshot Report.

It provides a fascinating insight into the use of digital, mobile and social media around the world during 2020’s first three months – a time of upheaval and behavioural change due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. 

The report includes the latest consumer trends, many of which have been influenced by the pandemic, as well as the usual data points in the ongoing Global Digital Reports series. 

Key global headlines include:

• 47% of internet users say they are spending longer using social media, with 23% spending “significantly” more time using social compared to pre-lockdown behaviours; this shift was more common among women than men
• All of the key social platforms grew their active user bases over the first three months of 2020. Twitter saw the biggest jump, with a quarter-on-quarter increase of 14%
• TikTok tops the global app download charts, but trails Instagram in sixth place when it comes to monthly active users
• Zoom has been a clear winner. It has had as many as 200 million daily active users in recent weeks – 20 times more than pre-pandemic levels
• Weekly mobile game downloads in March 2020 jumped by 30% compared to weekly averages in Q4 ‘19
• There are 4.57 billion internet users (up 7%) and 3.81 billion social media users (up 8%) globally. Both have increased by +300 million over the past year
• Two-thirds of the world’s population now use a mobile phone – up 128m over the past 12 months to 5.16bn

Key national headlines include:

• In Italy, Facebook Messenger Group calls involving three or more users were up 1000%+ in March alone, against a backdrop of exponential growth of video calling worldwide. Meanwhile, Italians’ use of Facebook-owned apps during lockdown jumped 70%+
• In the Philippines, 64% of people said time spent on social media has increased (Filipinos already spend more time on social platforms than any other nationality; the global average was 47%)
• China reported the greatest growth in online shopping, despite already having one of the world’s highest ecommerce adoption rates