Internet usage soars as pandemic compels change in lifestyle: survey
The Covid-19 pandemic has pushed Thais into a full digital life with internet usage rising to 11 hours and 25 minutes.
Chaichana Mitrpant, executive director of Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), said that Thailand has been moving to a full digital era each year.
Various online activities, including online transactions, increased by leaps and bounds which created economic value and a digital society.
Thai people are now more familiar with technology and the Internet as the pandemic has driven the use of digital tools and internet, a recent survey said. This is one of the ways to prevent infection according to the principle of social spacing.
The 2020 Thailand Internet User Behaviour Survey reflected the behaviour change and future trends.
According to the latest survey in 2020, Thai people used the internet on average for 11 hours and 25 minutes a day, an increase of an hour and three minutes from 2019.
In terms of generations, Gen Y (age 20-39 years) made the most use of the internet with 12 hours and 26 minutes, followed by Gen Z (younger than 20) - 12 hours 8 minutes; Gen X (age 40-55) - 10 hours 20 minutes; and Baby Boomer (age 56-74) - 8 hours 41 minutes.
Overall, the number of internet hours used for school/work increased. This was partly due to the Covid-19 outbreak that led to closure of schools, and most offices having a work-from-home arrangement.
The most popular online activities are social media such as Facebook, Line, Instagram. They accounted for 95.3 per cent, followed by watching TV/watching clips/watching movies/listening to music online (85.0 per cent), searching for information (82.2 per cent), communicating online both phone calls and chat (77.8 per cent), email (69.0 per cent) and online shopping (67.3 per cent).
Social media that have continued to dominate the hearts of Thai people are Facebook (98.29 per cent), YouTube (97.5 per cent) and LINE (96.0 per cent), while the new platform TikTok has gained 35.8 per cent popularity.
The most popular online shopping platform is Shopee 91 per cent, followed by Lazada 72.9 per cent, Facebook Fanpage 55.1 per cent, Instagram 42.1 per cent, and Line 41.6 per cent.
The No. 1 popular TV and clip viewing platform is YouTube 99.1 per cent, Netflix 55.6 per cent, and Line TV 51.9 per cent.