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10 surprising facts from Webcertain Search And Social Report 2020

By Elin Box on March 27, 2020

The latest edition of Webcertain Search And Social Report has just been published!

It provides the most up-to-date internet penetration, search engine, social media and digital marketing stats and facts from 38 countries around the world.

There are lots of interesting insights in there for international digital marketers to digest, but here are the top ten that might surprise you…

1. Twitter is now the most popular social network in the UK… just!

Over the last year, there have been substantial changes to the UK’s social media landscape. Facebook’s share of the social media market has dropped dramatically, whilst Twitter’s has risen. Twitter is now the social network with the largest market share (37%). It comes just a hair’s breadth before Facebook with 36%, with Instagram coming in third place with 16%.

2. The top e-commerce site in Latin America is Mercado Libre

We are so used to Amazon being the dominant e-commerce site that anything different now seems odd. But that’s exactly what we see in Mexico and Argentina, where Mercado Libre is the most popular destination for online shoppers. Businesses wanting to sell their physical products to Latin American customers would be wise to bear that in mind!

3. Ecosia is the third most popular search engine in Germany and Belgium

If you haven’t heard of Ecosia, it’s a new, environmentally-friendly search engine that uses its ad revenue to plant trees. It’s now the third most popular search engine in both Germany and Belgium. Whilst its market share might not yet be massive in either country (it’s just 0.7% and 0.8% respectively), the fact that it’s managed to clinch third place in both countries nevertheless shows that its eco-friendly mission is something that resonates with German and Belgian consumers.

4. DuckDuckGo is the third most popular search engine in the Netherlands

DuckDuckGo is another less well-known search engine that’s nonetheless claimed the third spot in another European country: the Netherlands. DuckDuckGo is a privacy-centric search engine that prides itself in not storing users’ personal info, not storing searches or browsing habits, and not selling any data to advertisers. Again, its market share isn’t huge (0.8%), but the fact it’s third shows that privacy is important to Dutch internet users.

5. Romanian internet speeds are super-fast

When you think of super-fast internet speeds, you might not think of Romania, an Eastern European country with a population of just 19 million people. However, Romania has the fastest internet speeds in Europe and the fourth fastest in the entire world! Last year, the average fixed internet connection speed in the country increased by 16% to a whopping 144.92 MB per second.

6. Online content in India is increasingly being produced in local languages

Looking at the languages dominating the Indian online realm, we are currently seeing a strong shift away from English and towards local languages, with Hindi being the most common. Research by KPMG predicts that by 2030 the typical Indian internet user will be non-English speaking. Indeed, of the 40 million new internet users who came online in recent years, 90% use a local Indian language when online.

7. The Japanese social media landscape is unlike any other

Let’s not lie, when you think of social media, the first network that probably springs to mind is Facebook, right? Not so in Japan! Over there, Twitter reigns supreme, making up 42% of the market share. In second place comes Pinterest with 22% of the market share, with Facebook only managing to come in third with 20%. Furthermore, when it comes to Facebook, the way the Japanese use the platform is more similar to how Western countries use LinkedIn (which does not have a strong presence in the country); Facebook is seen as a professional network in Japan, and is used for job hunting and professional networking.

8. Yandex is getting more popular in Turkey

If you’ve heard of Yandex, you probably know it as a popular search engine in Russia. But did you know it’s also becoming increasingly more popular in Turkey? It now accounts for 11% of the Turkish search engine market share – which is no small number of searches when you realise that Turkey’s online population is almost 70 million people!

9. If you’re targeting Canada, don’t forget about the French speakers

Perhaps this point isn’t exactly “surprising”, but it is very easy for Anglophones to forget: Canada is a bilingual country. Both English and French are official languages there. The majority of Canadian French speakers are in Quebec, where it is the only language spoken by some people. You might therefore want to create both English and French content when targeting Canada – just make sure you localise your content to be Canadian English and Canadian French.

10. New laws in Norway will impact online sellers from 1 April 2020

This final point might not be as exciting as some of the others, but it’s a very important one if you’re selling to Norwegians online. From 1 April 2020, VAT will start being applied to all foreign goods bought online there.

I hope this blog post has given you a useful introduction to the current global digital marketing landscape. For more in-depth information on 38 countries, you can read the Webcertain Search And Social Report here.

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Elin Box

Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain
Elin is a Content Marketing Manager at Webcertain. She is responsible for Webcertain’s Self-learning platform, producing in-depth guides on a range of international digital marketing topics. She also helps run the Webcertain blog and is the writer of the Webcertain search and social report, an annual report summarising digital marketing best practices in over 50 countries. She is passionate about educating and empowering people to make the best decisions for their business and is proud to help share Webcertain’s wealth of digital marketing knowledge with the world. Elin is from the UK.

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